Edward Smith Deevey, Jr died on November 29, 1988, following a heart attack. He was Graduate Research Curator of Paleoecology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville. As a reflection of his expertise in many academic disciplines, Ed held Graduate Research Professorships in four University of Florida departments: zoology, botany, geology and Latin American studies.

The “C14” data base, designed and implemented at the University of Arizona Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, uses Q&A, an artificial intelligence data file management program. The data entered into this data base are easily retrievable and exportable for submission to RADIOCARBON, and to the International Radiocarbon Data Base (IRDB). The use of artificial intelligence allows both novice and experienced computer operators to search and retrieve data with few key strokes and normal English sentences.

The Samoan Archipelago occupies a critical position for understanding the dispersal of early Austronesian-speaking peoples into the southwestern Pacific, including the initial colonization by humans of the Polynesian triangle. To date, the most easterly reported site of the Lapita cultural complex (Green, 1979; Kirch, 1984; Kirch & Hunt, 1988) is the Mulifanua site on Upolu Island, Western Samoa (Green & Davidson, 1974). Lapita colonists settled the larger, western Samoan Islands by the end of the second millennium bc. Archaeologic and linguistic evidence also suggest that the islands of Eastern Polynesia (eg, Marquesas, Society and Cook Islands) were settled, at least in part, from Samoa. However, the timing of this movement into Eastern Polynesia has not yet been dated to earlier than ca 150 bc on the basis of radiocarbon dating of cultural materials from the Marquesas Islands (Kirch, 1986; Ottino, 1985). This has raised the issue of whether there was a “long pause” between the settlement of Samoa (and the other islands of Western Polynesia, such as Tonga, Futuna, and ‘Uvea) and that of Eastern Polynesia (Irwin, 1981; Kirch, 1986; Terrell, 1986).

The following list consists of dates obtained by liquid scintillation counting of benzene for archaeologic samples mostly measured between June 1986 and June 1987.

The Krakow Radiocarbon Laboratory is part of the Environmental Physics Department headed by T Florkowski and belongs to the Institute of Physics and Nuclear Techniques, The Academy of Mining and Metallurgy. A 3H and 14C laboratory was built primarily for the assessment of natural radioactivity in groundwater. In 1982, 14C preparation facilities were extended to include a combustion system for organic samples. The 14C measurement method is liquid scintillation counting on synthesized benzene in an LSC spectrometer TRI-CARB model 3320 (Packard International).

The Riga Radiocarbon Laboratory began its serial measurements in 1971. Radiocarbon activity is measured by solution scintillation counters. Benzol, obtained by acetylene trimerization on vanadium pentoxide activated silicagel, is used as 14C activity carrier. The dates refer to 1950 according to the 5568-year half-life of 14C. The statistical error is 1σ (Veksler, Putans & Savvaitov, 1971).

We present data here of samples from coastal regions of the USSR, which reflect their geologic-geomorphologic development (Veksler et al, 1975; Veksler, Putans & Stelle, 1977; Veksler & Prede, 1986).

Our standard procedure of 14C concentration measurements is reported in Riga I. We report here data on samples from the Latvian SSR and Eastern Siberia.

The radiocarbon dates reported in this list are almost all based on collagen measurements from human archaeologic bone material. This collagen was isolated according to the methods developed by Berger, Horney and Libby (1964), Ho, Marcus and Berger (1969), Longin (1971) and Protsch (1973). All samples were counted as CO2 gas at close to 1 atm in a 7.5L proportional counter with three energy channels. The 14C dates reported are calculated with the Libby half-life of 5568 ± 30 years as required by convention. 13C measurements were used to normalize to −25‰ in the standard manner. The biospheric standard is 95% the count rate of NBS oxalic acid for radiocarbon laboratories. Background is based on CO2 obtained from marble. The accuracy of counter operation is checked against historically dated wood from the funerary boat of Sesostris III, 1872−8 +4 bc (Hayes, 1962). The 14C ages are not tree-ring calibrated.

The Menlo Park Radiocarbon Laboratory utilizes gas proportional counting of carbon dioxide in counters installed 9.5m below the ground surface for background reduction (Robinson, 1977, 1979; Robinson & Trimble, 1981, 1983). The reported results of geologic samples closely follow the guidelines of Stuiver and Polach (1977). The standard errors for analyses earlier than USGS-500 are based solely upon counting statistics, while later analyses include estimates of uncertainty in voltage, pressure, temperature, and δ13C. Unless otherwise noted, organic samples are pretreated in NaOH and HCl, and carbonate samples in HCl.

This is a list of radiocarbon analyses determined since our previous list (R, 1987, v 29, no. 1, p 135–147). As before, with the exception of speleothems and groundwaters, the calculations follow conventional radiocarbon protocol (Stuiver & Polach, 1977). Sample pretreatment, combustion and counting techniques are essentially the same as described in R, 1971, v 13, no. 1, p 135–140, supplemented by new techniques for groundwater processing (R, 1979, v 21, no. 1, p 131–137). Speleothem and groundwater model ages (given in the comment section of each listing) are based on an initial activity of 85 ± 10 percent modern carbon (pMC), as recommended in Srdoč et al (1986), without adjustment for δ13C. These model ages can be converted from the 5570-yr half-life to the chronometrically more correct half-life of 5730 yr by multiplying by the factor 1.029. The “± figures” on these model ages are statistical combinations of the 1σ counting uncertainty and the ± 10% uncertainty in the assumed 85 pMC. Ages and “± figures” of all other samples are adjusted for stable isotope fractionation according to the recommendations in Stuiver and Polach (1977). Data processing is done by computer (Obelić & Planinić, 1977; Obelić, 1980). Sample descriptions are prepared in collaboration with collectors and submitters.