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Comment on ‘Determination of the Radiocarbon Age of Parchment of the Vinland Map’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

K R Ludwig
K R Ludwig*
Affiliation:
Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, California, 94709, USA. Email: kludwig@bgc.org.
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I wish to point out some statistical errors in the uncertainty calculations for the radiocarbon age of the Vinland Map (Donahue et al. 2002). First, the authors state that the 14C measurements of samples with chemical treatments B, C, D, and E “… result in consistent radiocarbon ages”, and that “… two (of these analyses) are 1.5 sigma, and the others are one sigma or less, from the weighted average.” In fact, the overall scatter of the data show that it is improbable that these data are statistically coherent, largely because analysis J21C lies 2.1 sigma from the weighted mean.

Type
Notes, Comments, and Letters
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , 2002 , pp. 597 - 598
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

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Bronk Ramsey, C. 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy: the OxCal Program. Radiocarbon 37(2):425–430.Google Scholar
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