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Dating Charred Soil Organic Matter: Comparison of Radiocarbon Ages from Macrocharcoals and Chemically Separated Charcoal Carbon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Eileen Eckmeier ,
Klaas Van der Borg ,
Ursula Tegtmeier ,
Michael W I Schmidt  and
Renate Gerlach
Eileen Eckmeier*
Affiliation:
University of Zurich, Dept. of Geography, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland Also at Weizmann Institute of Science, Kimmel Center of Archaeological Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
Klaas Van der Borg
Affiliation:
Universiteit Utrecht, Faculteit Natuur- en Sterrenkunde, 3508 TA Utrecht, the Netherlands
Ursula Tegtmeier
Affiliation:
University of Cologne, Dept. for Pre- and Protohistory, Archaeobotany Laboratory, Weyertal 125, 50923 Köln, Germany
Michael W I Schmidt
Affiliation:
University of Zurich, Dept. of Geography, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
Renate Gerlach
Affiliation:
Rheinisches Amt für Bodendenkmalpflege, Endenicher Strasse 133, 53115 Bonn, Germany
*
Corresponding author. Email: eileen.eckmeier@geo.uzh.ch
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Abstract

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Radiocarbon dating of charcoal in soils is commonly used to reconstruct past environmental processes. Also microcharcoal that is chemically isolated from soil organic matter by high-energy UV photo-oxidation can be dated with 14C accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). We compared the 14C AMS ages of 13 pairs of hand-picked macrocharcoals and microcharcoal samples separated via the UV oxidation method; both charcoal fractions were taken from the same soil samples (prehistoric pit fillings). We found that in most cases, the microcharcoal fraction yielded older ages than the single macrocharcoal pieces, and that the differences between the ages are not systematic. A reason for these age differences might be that the microcharcoal fraction consists of more stable components than macrocharcoals and thus yields older ages. Dating of microcharcoal would give a mean age of charred organic matter in soil material and the ages of the more stable compounds. Thus, 14C data obtained from the microcharcoal fraction in soils is not comparable to macrocharcoal ages and should not be used to complement existing macrocharcoal data sets.

Information

Type
Radiocarbon, Archaeology, and Landscape Change
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , 2009 , pp. 437 - 443
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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