Standardised taxonomic data for radiocarbon samples
Radiocarbon dating can be applied to any type of organic materials. But where possible, archaeologists try to collect an identifiable piece of preserved animal or plant tissue, because knowing what species it came from is often necessary to obtain a reliable date. For example, species with diets high in marine food produce apparent ages older than their true age due to the marine reservoir effect, and this needs to be corrected for. When radiocarbon dates are responsibly published, this taxonomic information will be reported alongside the age determination and other important information about the sample. Most of our source databases recorded this in turn, but practices for doing so varied widely. One author might record a sample of human bone as “Homo sapiens”, where another calls it “human femur” or another “Menschenknochen”. So anyone searching for dates on a particular taxon will find it difficult to predict all the ways it might show up in XRONOS. Read more...