Findings from an in-Depth Annual Tree-Ring Radiocarbon Intercomparison

Abstract

ABSTRACT The radiocarbon ( 14 C) calibration curve so far contains annually resolved data only for a short period of time. With accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) matching the precision of decay counting, it is now possible to efficiently produce large datasets of annual resolution for calibration purposes using small amounts of wood. The radiocarbon intercomparison on single-year tree-ring samples presented here is the first to investigate specifically possible offsets between AMS laboratories at high precision. The results show that AMS laboratories are capable of measuring samples of Holocene age with an accuracy and precision that is comparable or even goes beyond what is possible with decay counting, even though they require a thousand times less wood. It also shows that not all AMS laboratories always produce results that are consistent with their stated uncertainties. The long-term benefits of studies of this kind are more accurate radiocarbon measurements with, in the future, better quantified uncertainties.

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• Historic England GB
• Aix-Marseille Université FR
• Aarhus University DK
• Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement FR
• Curt Engelhorn Centre Archaeometry DE
• University of Groningen NL
• Collège de France FR
• University of Georgia US
• University of Bristol GB
• Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique FR
• University of California, Irvine US
• University of Glasgow GB
• University of Arizona US
• Pennsylvania State University US
• Institut de Recherche pour le Développement FR
• Centre de Recherche et d’Enseignement de Géosciences de l’Environnement FR
• ETH Zurich CH
• Nagoya University JP
• University of Hohenheim DE
• Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre GB
• University of Waikato NZ
• University of California, Santa Barbara US
• James Cook University AU
• Queen's University Belfast GB
• Dyson (United Kingdom) GB
• The University of Tokyo JP

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