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Wiggle-Matching Using Known-Age Pine from Jermyn Street, London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Cathy Tyers
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, West Court, 2 Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 4DT, England, United Kingdom
Jane Sidell*
Affiliation:
English Heritage, 1 Waterhouse Square, 138-42 Holborn, London EC1N 2ST, England, United Kingdom
Johannes Van der Plicht
Affiliation:
Centre for Isotope Research, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, the Netherlands
Peter Marshall
Affiliation:
Chronologies, 25 Onslow Road, Sheffield, S11 7AF, England, United Kingdom
Gordon Cook
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, East Kilbride G75 0QF, Scotland, United Kingdom
Christopher Bronk Ramsey
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, England, United Kingdom
Alex Bayliss
Affiliation:
English Heritage, 1 Waterhouse Square, 138-42 Holborn, London EC1N 2ST, England, United Kingdom
*
Corresponding author. Email: jane.sidell@english-heritage.org.uk
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Abstract

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A slice of pine from the period covered by single-year calibration data (Stuiver 1993) was selected to serve as part of the quality assurance procedures of the English Heritage radiocarbon dating program, following successful wiggle-matching of 14C measurements from structural 15th century English oak timbers (Hamilton et al. 2007). The timber selected was a roofing element from a house on Jermyn Street, central London, demonstrated by dendrochronology to have been felled in AD 1670. Eighteen single-ring samples were dated by the 14C laboratories at Groningen, Oxford, and SUERC: each laboratory was sent a random selection of 6 samples. This approach was intended to mimic the mix of samples and relative ages incorporated into Bayesian chronological models during routine project research. This paper presents the results of this study.

Type
14C Chronologies, Dendrochronology, Wiggle-Matching, and Calibration Tools
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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