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An Experiment to Refute the Likelihood of Cellulose Carboxylation1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

R. E. M. Hedges ,
Christopher Bronk Ramsey  and
G.-J. Van Klinken
R. E. M. Hedges
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology, 6 Keble Road Oxford, OX1 3QJ, United Kingdom
Christopher Bronk Ramsey
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology, 6 Keble Road Oxford, OX1 3QJ, United Kingdom
G.-J. Van Klinken
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Biogeochemie, Sophienstrasse 10, D-07743 Jena, Germany
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Abstract

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To test the hypothesis that cellulose in linen can be carboxylated at high temperatures in the presence of CO2, water and silver, we heated two aliquots of cellulose extracted from old wood in glass ampoules, adding Ag powder to one to test its potential action as a catalyst for the carboxylation reaction. AMS measurement of the heated aliquots showed no statistically significant difference in 14C content from the “uncarboxylated” cellulose. We conclude that carboxylation is not a systematic source of error in the dating of cellulose-containing materials such as the linen in the Shroud of Turin.

Type
Part 1: Methods
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 40 , Issue 1: 16th International Radiocarbon Conference 16-20,1997 Groningen , 1997 , pp. 59 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

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