A new model for the interpretation of radiocarbon (14C) dates of Holocene marine shells is presented. For the Netherlands, the size of reservoir effect is difficult to assess, as these shells often lived in an environment of mixed marine- and river waters. Both stable isotopes 13C and 18O of the shell carbonate give insight in the environmental conditions the shells lived in. River water occurs in two main categories, distinguished by 18O: the Rhine which is dominant, and other rivers. This leads to two estuary mixing lines between the North Sea and rivers. The stable isotopes of the shell carbonate are also indicative for additional processes, such as uptake of secondary carbonate from the soil by shells, and exchange of C isotopes between atmosphere and water. Extensions of the main model deal with special cases such as pools of stagnant water and lakes. The model leads to an assessment of the recent 14C activities of the system the shells lived in, called 14aSYS. The measured 14C activities relative to these 14aSYS values determine the 14C age of the shells and include the reservoir effect. This way we circumvent normalizing to δ13C = –25‰, i.e. the terrestrial timescale and the subsequent correction for reservoir effects. The model is applied to a large legacy dataset of marine shells from the Netherlands, obtained during the last 7 decades. It contains 1116 14C dated shells; for the majority of these, the 3 isotopes 13C, 14C and 18O are measured.

We report new AMS radiocarbon dates of 16 samples from the Holocene deposits of the Vistula Spit, a large coastal barrier landform on the Southern Baltic coast. Collection of the samples was conducted directly from the sedimentary succession excavated during 2020–2022 construction of the Vistula Spit shipping canal. The dated material represents several paleosol horizons and peat lenses buried in the dune deposits, as well as their substrate – beach and shallow marine deposits.

Land snail shells are usually avoided for radiocarbon dating, due to the possible presence of dead carbon, although measurements on certain small species can be reliable. However, terrestrial gastropods, which are often abundant and well preserved in favorable sedimentary contexts, may represent an important source of material for precise dating. In this study, the shell selection method and radiocarbon results are presented, based on about twenty dates, from well-known and reliable archaeological contexts mostly from the Languedoc (southern France) and covering different cultural periods of the Holocene. Chronological controls are provided by dates based on plant remains, archaeological artifacts and stratigraphy, as well as geomorphological and environmental interpretations. The results obtained based on gastropod shells show a good agreement with the expected dates. In some examples, the target period is quite large, making it difficult to determine the degree of accuracy. However, other tests give perfectly synchronous dates between botanical or archaeological material and mollusks. Species selection takes into account that terrestrial gastropods living in the midst of vegetation are less likely to ingest fossil carbon and are therefore better suited for dating, especially wetland species, Succinella oblonga and Vertigo pygmaea. These promising results show the potential of terrestrial shells for dating archaeological sequences when prevailing biological material such as charcoal is lacking or is unreliable.

The site of Stublina, first excavated in 1956 by Milutin Garašanin of the Institute of Archaeology and Radoslav Galović of the National Museum Belgrade is located at the southeast outskirts of the Supska village near the town of Ćurpija, in Central Serbia. Its location on the edge of the flood plain of the Central Balkans’ major waterway, the Velika Morava River, places it on a major corridor extending south to north, linking southern Europe and the Aegean with the Pannonian plains in the north. Based on material finds, the site predominantly belongs to the Late Neolithic and is attributable to the so-called Vinča culture complex; however, sporadic finds of Early Neolithic Starčevo type pottery and Late Medieval burials were also reported. The results of the excavation were published in a single monograph in 1979, containing information on roughly half of the excavated area. However, radiocarbon dating was never performed on the site. The site of Stublina, containing evidence for the life span of the so-called Vinča culture complex in the Velika Morava River basin, one of the most important corridors during the entire Neolithic period of Southeast Europe, is a valuable chronological beacon based on its vast material record of pottery fragments, traditionally used to construct relative chronological sequences in the past. In this paper, we present the results of contextual radiocarbon dating using Bayesian chronological modeling with 28 new AMS 14C radiocarbon dates, selected from the material archive located in the depos of the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade. The samples were chosen from stratigraphically well-defined contexts published in the 1979 Garašanin and Garašanin volume on Supska. These contexts provide secure chronological order of layers and features, representing the entire life span of the site in the Late Neolithic period. Our results provide strong validation for archival records originating from old archaeological excavations and breathe new life into their potential for contemporary archaeological research, using techniques and methods unavailable at the time of their creation.

We present reservoir effects on shells of species Terebralia palustris and Marcia spp. that were recovered during archaeological excavations at the multi-period site of Tell Abraq, Sharjah Emirate, UAE (This paper was presented at the combined 24th Radiocarbon and 10th Radiocarbon & Archaeology International Conference, Zurich, Switzerland, Sept. 2022.). The site was inhabited during the mid to late Holocene. It is situated in a lagoonal environment with former mangrove forests at the Arabian Gulf coast of southeast Arabia. Due to availability in the immediate proximity, shellfish played an important role for the local subsistence throughout the site’s occupation. Tell Abraq provides a well-defined and stratigraphically controlled archaeological context for investigations on the reservoir effect of the two species chosen. Crucial for the determination of the marine reservoir effect is comparison with contemporaneous terrestrial carbon samples. We discuss the data in a wider context with respect to results obtained at other sites.

AMS radiocarbon ages of organic matter from ice wedges and enclosing peat were determined for the polygonal peatland at the Lorino site on the eastern coast of the Chukchi Peninsula. The study’s goal was to fill a knowledge gap about the dynamics of polygonal peatlands with ice wedges and winter climate conditions during the Holocene in this easternmost region of the Russian Arctic. It has been found that peatland accumulated during the Younger Dryas and early Holocene, mostly between 14 and 9.9 cal ka BP, while ice wedges were dated from 7.7 to 6.6 cal ka BP. Since ice wedges have features of syngenetic growth, the discrepancy in the age of ice wedges and enclosing peatland may result from the significant presence of early and pre-Holocene peat. It is assumed that the older polygonal peatland deeply thawed during the Holocene optimum, and subsequently, when the permafrost aggraded, a new generation of ice wedges was formed. The AMS 14C age (18.1 cal ka BP) of the ice wedge exposed below the peat indicates the presence of a Late Pleistocene generation of ice wedges at the study site. Paleotemperature reconstructions based on the stable isotope composition of ice wedges show that the mean January air temperature during the Northgrippian stage of the Holocene varied from –27 to –23°C, and at the end of the Late Pleistocene, from –32 to –26°C.

This paper presents new radiocarbon dates for two Aboriginal archaeological complexes situated on the cliff-lines of the Murray River in South Australia (SA); at Pooginook Flat and Tanamee. These dates represent the first age estimates for archaeological sites within the Upper Gorge section of the Murray River. The dates ranged from ca. 11 cal ka to the Late Holocene. The research supports previous evidence which has indicated that sites located along the Murray cliffs preserve much of the oldest evidence of Aboriginal peopling along the Murray River corridor in SA. The new dates also allow us to contribute to discussions concerning broader chronological trends in Aboriginal lifeways within the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). Specifically, the new ages add some insight into the nature and timing of early Aboriginal occupation along the Murray River corridor in SA and further evidence that the LGM acted as a significant inhibitive factor for intensive occupation of this riverscape. The conservation of these significant and informative cliff-top sites remains precarious, however, and there is an imperative to continue to record and sample the extant sites.

Bone and tissue fractions, obtained in 2017 following hip replacement surgery on a healthy Caucasian male, born in 1944, reflect in their 14C concentrations the integrated effect of the lifetime metabolic uptake and replacement of atmospheric bomb 14C at different tissue-specific turnover rates. The 14C content of hair and nails reflects recent carbon uptake. The 14C values in healthy cartilage and bone collagen/apatite correspond to those of the “local” atmosphere during the 2005–2009 Northern Hemisphere growing seasons, while those from damaged areas of the femur head correspond to the atmosphere in 2013–2014. A simple bone growth and regeneration model used in combination with the NH atmospheric 14C concentrations indicates remodelling rates around 9% per year in the healthy bone and a doubling to tripling in the damaged area depending on the model chosen. The differences in 14C concentration observed in the fractions provide both a caveat for sample selection for the 14C dating of archaeological bones and an indication of its potential in forensics and as a diagnostic tool for turnover rates in medical studies.

The ubiquitous marine radiocarbon reservoir effect (MRE) constrains the construction of reliable chronologies for marine sediments and the further comparison of paleoclimate records. Different reference values were suggested from various archives. However, it remains unclear how climate and MREs interact. Here we studied two pre-bomb corals from the Hainan Island and Xisha Island in the northern South China Sea (SCS), to examine the relationship between MRE and regional climate change. We find that the MRE from east of Hainan Island is mainly modulated by the Southern Asian Summer Monsoon-induced precipitation (with 11.4% contributed to seawater), rather than wind induced upwelling. In contrast, in the relatively open seawater of Xisha Island, the MRE is dominated by the East Asian Winter Monsoon, with relatively more negative (lower) ΔR values associated with high wind speeds, implying horizontal transport of seawater. The average SCS ΔR value relative to the Marine20 curve is –161±39 14C years. Our finding highlights the essential role of monsoon in regulating the MRE in the northern SCS, in particularly the tight bond between east Asian winter monsoon and regional MRE.

Marine flooding events occasionally interrupted the everyday lives of prehistoric coastal populations. Identification of such events are important for studies of past population dynamics and adaptive strategies. However, short-term events are rarely identified in the geological record, which puts a severe limit on our archaeological interpretive framework. This paper explores the temporality of the second Holocene transgression in southwestern Norway (ca. 3500 BCE) and works under the hypothesis that it was not a slow geological process but rather one or multiple short-term events. A Bayesian approach is used to analyze multidisciplinary time series data collected from sites located in Norway and Shetland. The resulting chronological model supports the hypothesis that the second Holocene transgression in southwestern Norway was a rapid flooding event that occurred in the period 3445–3395 BCE (Early Neolithic II). It is also suggested, but not argued conclusively, that this flooding event could correspond to the Garth tsunami, a paleotsunami named after Garth Loch in Shetland. Considering the potential impact of such a flooding event on the everyday lives of local foragers who dwelled in southwestern Norway, it is anticipated that this study could form a starting point for future case studies.

The length of time that cemeteries were used provides important insights into the persistence of social identities and how communities situate themselves in the landscape. In Bronze Age Europe, the duration of use of cemeteries is an important line of evidence to assess the role of mortuary practices in a time of social change across the continent. This study presents new dates and a Bayesian model of cremation at a Middle Bronze Age (2000–1500 BCE) cemetery in Transylvania (Romania). The cemetery at Limba-Oarda de Jos-Șesul Orzii is the largest known cemetery associated with the Wietenberg culture in Transylvania during the Middle Bronze Age. Unlike Early Bronze Age cemeteries and other Middle Bronze Age cemeteries elsewhere in the Carpathian Basin where burial activity often continued for over 500 years, the duration of use of Limba-Oarda de Jos-Șesul Orzii was much briefer. The cemetery formed within 160 years; we argue closer to 50–100 years. This use life is similar to the nearby Wietenberg cremation cemetery at Sebeș and stands in contrast to mortuary practices in previous time periods and other contemporaneous regions. The short duration of burial activity, and subsequent abandonment of the site, has ramifications for understanding Middle Bronze Age settlement patterns, mortuary rituals, and the dynamics around emerging inequality in Transylvania and beyond.

In this paper we present new AMS radiocarbon dates from the Bronze Age cemetery of Tiszafüred-Majoroshalom excavated between 1961 and 1972. The cemetery provides crucial information on the cultural development and chronology of the Bronze Age Otomani-Füzesabony and the Tumulus cultures of Eastern Central Europe, in addition to the transition between the Middle and Late Bronze Age (approx. 1500 BC) in the Great Hungarian Plain.

In this paper, we examine cases where radiocarbon (14C) dates are incompatible with dates produced by other established archaeological methods. We present results from nine bones that we sampled from tombs in Phoenician sites in Sicily. These bones produced radiocarbon dates conflicting with established dates of finds in the associated tombs. These discrepancies, particularly in tomb dates, pose a serious problem, as they suggest that the finds may be disconnected from the buried individuals, challenging the fundamental premise of studying excavated tombs. To put our findings in a broader context, we also present other cases of discrepancies found in recent publications and note some common observations throughout these studies. Our questions and observations arise from the significant implications that radiocarbon dating has for our research on Phoenician ancient DNA, as these conflicts impact our understanding of the potential migration and movement of Phoenician people throughout the Mediterranean.

This date list reports the unpublished results from a multi-year radiocarbon dating program of the prehistoric Iapodes collection at the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb. Dated materials were excavated from cave, burial, and settlement contexts by various museum teams during the past century.

A reassessment of radiocarbon counting statistics in accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) at the Andre E. Lalonde National Facility revealed that the traditionally assumed Poisson distribution may not always apply. An extensive analysis of 2.5 years of 14C and 12C data was conducted on a MICADAS™ AMS. This study found that only 63% of results adhered to Poisson statistics, while 34.2% showed slight deviations, and 2.8% exhibited strong non-Poisson behavior. This finding challenges the classic assumption that radiocarbon AMS is inherently a Poisson process. This study recommends considering non-Poisson models, specifically quasi-Poisson and negative binomial models, to better account for internal error and improve the accuracy of the reported error. Integrating 12C current noise into error calculations is also suggested as it plays a significant role in measurement variability. We would like to ignite curiosity on other AMS laboratories to test the non-Poisson error framework with the broader aim of assessing its applicability in improving conventional statistical models, error expansion methods, and in ensuring more accurate and reliable 14C results.

This paper presents an improved setup for radiocarbon analysis of water-soluble organic carbon based on wet chemical oxidation as installed at the Laboratory for the Analysis of Radiocarbon with AMS (LARA) at the University of Bern. The implementation of a non-dispersive infrared CO2 detector allows more precise and accurate quantification of carbon amounts in samples and establishes the possibility of simple monitoring of the efficacy of flushing and sampling processes. A detailed blank assessment unveiled undesired oxidation of different materials and sample temperature as critical factors regarding the level of constant contamination. Contamination arising from oxidation of septum pieces and carbon-based glues in conventional sampling needles was minimized by developing a glass-sintered needle. This new needle was also designed to be longer, reducing the minimum amount of sample solution needed to 2 mL. The oxidation time and temperature (1 hr at 75°C) were optimized to further decrease contamination during analyses of samples with carbon amounts of up to ∼50 µg. With these improvements, we now report low constant contamination levels of 0.62 ± 0.12 µg C (with F14C of 0.19 ± 0.04), whereas the cross contamination factor was determined to be 0.25 ± 0.07%.