The Single Stage AMS radiocarbon facility at the Australian National University has operated for the past 14 years. This paper presents the pretreatment methods used for the major sample types dated and reflects on whether quality assurance protocols can adequately detect altered materials. The majority of fossil samples dated by the facility are from tropical and arid environments where diagenesis of both organic samples and carbonates is often severe. A large proportion of the samples submitted cannot be dated, and screening and quality assurance methods are crucial. Based on analysis of 250 measurements on bone collagen, quality assurance indicators for bone are revised. From May 2021, the laboratory has accepted dates on collagen where yield >0.5%, %C is in the range of 39.7–46.9, and the C:N ratio is between 3.00 and 3.30.

This article discusses radiocarbon dating results of documents preserved at the Central Library of the University of Tehran (hereafter, CLUT) as part of the project “Irankoran.” The paper adds new evidence to an ongoing campaign of dating Qurʾāns and Oriental manuscripts by the Corpus Coranicum Project. The dated manuscripts include one kūfī fragment of the Qurʾān on parchment (no. 10950) and a selection of Islamic and Persian manuscripts, all from the second millennium: the Arabic dictionary Muǧmal al-Luġah (Meškāt no. 203), the medical encyclopedia Ḏaḫīrah-ye Khwārazmšāhī (no. 5156), the epic Panǧ Ganǧ of Neẓāmī (no. 5179), the book of wisdom Ādāb al-Falāsifah (no. 2165) attributed to Ḥunayn b. Isḥāq (d. 873 CE), and one of the oldest extant manuscripts of the Avesta Wīdēwdād (no. 11263). Although the authenticity of their colophons is disputed, radiocarbon dating supports the dates of the colophons; even in cases where they were suspected of being tampered with, they most likely present the accurate original dates of the corresponding manuscripts. Only in the case of Ādāb al-Falāsifah (no. 2165), radiocarbon dating of the parchment has identified the manuscript as non-authentic. Inconsistent carbon dating results of two samples taken from Ḏaḫīrah-ye Khwārazmšāhī (no. 5156) and Panǧ Ganǧ (no. 5179) provide evidence of later replaced/added leaves.

In 1952 Sinclair Hood found a large deposit of pottery in front of the Great Poros Wall at Mycenae and published a brief account of its discovery the following year. In 1966 Elizabeth French published a paper discussing the pottery, assigning it an early Late Helladic IIIB1 date. From these accounts, we know that the deposit appeared in four trenches: Prehistoric Cemetery Central (PCC) III, where it sat on a surface of hard tramped earth; PCC IV, where it lay on bedrock; and PCC III Extension East and Area VII, where it rested on white clay plaster floors. But otherwise we learn little about the stratigraphy of these four trenches. Using Hood's unpublished excavation notebook, this paper examines the stratigraphy of the trenches associated with the deposit and uncovers the archaeological history of the area. In doing so, it reveals several omissions in the published accounts, most notably that there was another surface immediately below the white clay plaster floor in PCC III Extension East and a deposit of pottery associated with it. The pottery from this layer, designated Level 3, was mistakenly included by French in her paper. Fifty-four decorated sherds from Level 3 were kept, seven of which were illustrated by French. Most of the sherds come from small stirrup jars; kylikes, including the Zygouries type; Group A deep bowls; and stemmed bowls. The five most popular motifs on the sherds are the flower, whorl-shell, wavy line, parallel chevrons and panelled patterns. The shapes and motifs reflect those in the main pottery deposit and indicate a date of early Late Helladic IIIB1 for the group. The conclusion emphasises the importance of using excavation notebooks in research.

The Napo River basin, which is situated within the Upper Amazon archaeological region, is one of the most speciose forests in Greater Amazonia. Standard thinking in scholarship and science holds that these forests are essentially pristine because any Indigenous impacts in the past would have been minimal, seedbanks would have been nearby, and natural forests would have reappeared after the humans left, died out, or dispersed. Inventory research in 2019 on three ridgetop forests in Waorani territory inside the Curaray basin (which drains to the right margin of the Napo River) and a comparable inventory on one control site forest along the Nushiño River (also in the Curaray basin) show human impacts from about the late nineteenth century to about 1960; they occurred during the period of wartime among Waorani themselves and between Wao people and outsiders. The human impacts resulted in the high basal-area presence of two long-lived species with important Waorani cultural uses: cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) and ungurahua palm (Oenocarpus bataua Mart.). These species have high frequency and dominance values and do not occur in the control site, which is comparable in terms of elevation above the flood zone of the rivers in the sample. These findings mean that alpha diversity in the right margin sector (or south) of the Napo River basin cannot a priori be explained by reference to traditionally, biologically accepted patterns of ecological succession but may require knowledge of historical patterns of Indigenous land use and secondary landscape transformation over time due to human (specifically Waorani) impacts of the past.

Here, we present the results of carbon isotope and elemental analysis of one-year-old Pinus Sylvestris L. needles collected in 2021 from 10 sampling sites in a highly populated and industrialized area of Poland. The needles were exposed to air pollution for one year. The chemical analysis of the samples was performed using different methods: radiocarbon analysis by accelerator mass spectrometry, stable isotope analysis using isotope ratio mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy. Variations in the carbon isotopes and elemental composition of pine needles were due to a mixture of carbon dioxide originating from different sources such as households, vehicle traffic, and industrial factories.