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Dating Bones near the Limit of the Radiocarbon Dating Method: Study Case Mammoth from Niederweningen, ZH Switzerland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Irka Hajdas ,
Adam Michczyński ,
Georges Bonani ,
Lukas Wacker  and
Heinz Furrer
Irka Hajdas*
Affiliation:
Ion Beam Physics, ETH, Zürich, Schafmattstrasse. 20, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
Adam Michczyński
Affiliation:
Silesian University of Technology, Institute of Physics, Radiocarbon Laboratory, GADAM Centre of Excellence, Boleslawa Krzywoustego 2, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Georges Bonani
Affiliation:
Ion Beam Physics, ETH, Zürich, Schafmattstrasse. 20, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
Lukas Wacker
Affiliation:
Ion Beam Physics, ETH, Zürich, Schafmattstrasse. 20, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
Heinz Furrer
Affiliation:
Paläontologisches Institut und Museum der Universität Zürich, Karl Schmid-Strasse 4, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland
*
Corresponding author. Email: hajdas@phys.ethz.ch
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Abstract

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Preparation of bone material for radiocarbon dating is still a subject of investigation. In the past, the most problematic ages appeared to be the very old bones, i.e. those with ages close to the limit of the dating method. Development of preparative methods requires sufficient amounts of bone material as well as the possibility of verification of the ages. In the peat section at Niederweningen, ZH Switzerland, numerous bones of mammoth and other animals were found in the late 19th century. The first accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon ages of those bones from 1890/1891 excavations placed the age between 33,000 and 35,000 BP. The excavations in 2003/2004 provided additional material for 14C dating. An age of 45,870 ± 1080 BP was obtained on base (NaOH step) cleaned gelatin from mammoth bone, which was very close to the age of 45,430 ± 1020 BP obtained for the peat layer that buried the mammoths. The 14C age of gelatin cleaned using the ultrafiltration method obtained in this study, 45,720 ± 710 BP, is in a very good agreement with the previously obtained results. Moreover, the study shows that 3 pretreatment methods (base+Longin, Longin+ultrafiltration, and base+Longin+ultrafiltration) give ages consistent with each other and with the age of the peat section.

Type
How Good Are 14C Ages of Bones? Problems and Methods Applied
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , 2009 , pp. 675 - 680
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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