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Report on Stage 3 of the International Collaborative Program

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

T C Aitchison ,
E M Scott ,
D D Harkness ,
M S Baxter  and
G T Cook
T C Aitchison
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QW, Scotland
E M Scott
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QW, Scotland
D D Harkness
Affiliation:
NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0QU, Scotland
M S Baxter
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0QU, Scotland
G T Cook
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0QU, Scotland
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Abstract

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This report on the third and final stage of the International Collaborative Program concentrates on the analysis of internal and external variability of 14C dates obtained from samples involved in the full 14C dating process. Thirty-eight laboratories took part in this stage with most producing 8 14C dates from 3 sets of duplicate material (eg, wood, shell and peat) and 2 single samples of wood of known ages 190 yr BP apart. From the 3 sets of duplicates for each laboratory, the internal precision of most laboratories was adequate; 6 labs grossly underestimated their internal reproducibility. From the 14C determinations from the 5 distinct samples for each laboratory, we discovered significant systematic biases, often greater than 100 years, in 15 laboratories and even accounting for bias, 12 laboratories had significantly greater external variability than explained by their quoted errors. In total, 23 out of the 38 laboratories in this stage of the study, FAILED to meet these 3 basic criteria for an adequate performance in the production of 14C dates.

Information

Type
Session I
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 32 , Issue 3: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Intercomparison of Radiocarbon Laboratories , 1990 , pp. 271 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

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