Journal Article

Fluctuating radiocarbon offsets observed in the southern Levant and implications for archaeological chronology debates

Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, Jull, A. J. Timothy, Lorentzen, Brita, Chivall, David, Lange, Todd E., Manning, Sturt W., Griggs, Carol

2018

Overview

Considerable work has gone into developing high-precision radiocarbon (14C) chronologies for the southern Levant region during the Late Bronze to Iron Age/early Biblical periods (∼1200–600 BC), but there has been little consideration whether the current standard Northern Hemisphere 14C calibration curve (IntCal13) is appropriate for this region. We measured 14C ages of calendar-dated tree rings from AD 1610 to 1940 from southern Jordan to investigate contemporary 14C levels and to compare these with IntCal13. Our data reveal an average offset of ∼19 14C years, but, more interestingly, this offset seems to vary in importance through time. While relatively small, such an offset has substantial relevance to high-resolution 14C chronologies for the southern Levant, both archaeological and paleoenvironmental. For example, reconsidering two published studies, we find differences, on average, of 60% between the 95.4% probability ranges determined from IntCal13 versus those approximately allowing for the observed offset pattern. Such differences affect, and even potentially undermine, several current archaeological and historical positions and controversies.

• Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
• Subject: "Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences" / Anthropology / Archaeology / Atmospheric models / Calibration / Carbon 14 / Carbon dating / Chronology / Geological time / Northern Hemisphere / Offsets / Physical Sciences / Social Sciences / Tree rings / Variation