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Size Matters: Radiocarbon Dates of <200 µg Ancient Collagen Samples with AixMICADAS and Its Gas Ion Source

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2017

Helen Fewlass ,
Sahra Talamo ,
Thibaut Tuna ,
Yoann Fagault ,
Bernd Kromer ,
Helene Hoffmann ,
Caterina Pangrazzi ,
Jean-Jacques Hublin  and
Edouard Bard
Helen Fewlass*
Affiliation:
Department of Human Evolution, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
Sahra Talamo
Affiliation:
Department of Human Evolution, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
Thibaut Tuna
Affiliation:
CEREGE, Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, Collège de France, Aix-en-Provence, France
Yoann Fagault
Affiliation:
CEREGE, Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, Collège de France, Aix-en-Provence, France
Bernd Kromer
Affiliation:
Department of Human Evolution, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany Institut für Umweltphysik, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Helene Hoffmann
Affiliation:
Institut für Umweltphysik, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Caterina Pangrazzi
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia, Università degli studi di Trento, Trento, Italy
Jean-Jacques Hublin
Affiliation:
Department of Human Evolution, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
Edouard Bard
Affiliation:
CEREGE, Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, Collège de France, Aix-en-Provence, France
*
*Corresponding author. Email: helen_fewlass@eva.mpg.de.
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Abstract

For many of archaeology’s rarest and most enigmatic bone artifacts (e.g. human remains, bone ornaments, worked bone), the destruction of the 500 mg material necessary for direct accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating on graphite targets would cause irreparable damage; therefore many have not been directly dated. The recently improved gas ion source of the MICADAS (MIni CArbon DAting System) offers a solution to this problem by measuring gaseous samples of 5–100 µg carbon at a level of precision not previously achieved with an AMS gas ion source. We present the results of the first comparison between “routine” graphite dates of ca. 1000 µg C (2–3 mg bone collagen) and dates from aliquots of gaseous samples of <100 µg C (<0.2 mg bone collagen), undertaken with the highest possible precision in mind. The experiment demonstrates the performance of the AixMICADAS in achieving reliable radiocarbon measurements from <0.2 mg collagen samples back to 40,000 14C BP. The technique has great implications for resolving chronological questions for key archaeological artifacts.

Keywords

accelerator mass spectrometryarchaeologycollagengas ion sourceradiocarbon
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , April 2018 , pp. 425 - 439
Copyright
© 2017 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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