For the first time, a series of 14C dates has been obtained for samples from the archaeological excavations in Red Square, the historical center of Moscow. The remains of burned dwellings from the bottom of the cultural layer were dated as well as dispersed charcoal from the underlying plough soil. The results correspond to a 200-yr time interval and prove that arable activity at the site began as early as the late 11th century ad. The field belonged to Moscow itself or to rural settlements nearby. The oldest dwelling was built ca. the late 12th–early 13th century ad.

More radiocarbon analyses have been produced for the Neolithic flint mines of Grimes Graves than for any other site with which the British Museum's Radiocarbon Laboratory has been involved. Despite this heavy concentration of effort, a recent review of these figures concluded that poor sample selection, combined with a lack of sufficient quality assurance procedures, severely limit the use that can be made of this database. To overcome these difficulties, a redating program has been undertaken using a carefully selected subset of the original material. In this paper I discuss the flaws in the original data set, due to both technical and sampling problems; set out ways to avoid similar problems in the future, with particular reference to quality assurance; and discuss the new results and their archaeological implications.

An isotopic database for the Pacific/Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans) and foods that it scavenges is used to examine diet-induced 14C age variation in omnivores. We discuss a suite of 26 δ14C determinations and 13C and 15N analysis for modern Pacific/Polynesian rat bone gelatin and available food items from Kapiti Island, New Zealand (40°51'S, 174°75'E). These analyses provide the first isotopic data for modern specimens of the species, collected as part of a larger project to determine potential sources of bias in unexpectedly old 14C age measurements on subfossil specimens of R. exulans from New Zealand. Stable C, N and 14C isotopic and trapping data are used to trace carbon intake via the diet of the rats in each habitat. Data from specimens linked to five specific habitats on the island indicate that modern populations of R. exulans are not in equilibrium with atmospheric values of δ14C, being either enriched or depleted relative to the atmospheric curve in 1996/97, the period of collection. The δ14C values recorded for R. exulans are associated with diet, and result from variation in δ14C values found in animal-protein food items available to a scavenging omnivore. The titer of carbon deviating from atmospheric values is believed to be derived from the essential amino acids in the protein-rich foods of the rat diet.

Present evidence suggests that the depletion required to affect 14C ages limits the possibility that diet introduces dramatic offsets from true ages. Marine diets, for example, would have a variable effect on ages for terrestrial omnivores, contraindicating the application of a standard marine correction for such specimens. We suggest that to identify the extent to which diet may influence the 14C age in a given specimen of terrestrial omnivore, the separation and dating of essential amino acids vs. a nonessential amino, such as glycine, be applied.

We have determined the earliest calibrated dates on three types of basketry from the Great Basin of western North America. The oldest twined basketry dates to 10,380–10,918 cal bp, reed duck decoys to 2355–2773 cal bp, and wooden sandals of sagebrush bark or twined tule to 9247–10,375 cal bp and 9242–9836 cal bp, respectively.

Reliable series of high-precision radiocarbon dates in a stratified archaeological context are of great importance for interdisciplinary chronological and historical studies. The Early Bronze Age in the Near East is characterized by the beginning of the great civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as by urbanization in the Levant. We present stratified high-precision dates of short-lived material of Tell es-Sultan (Jericho), covering Late Proto-Urban/EB I, EB II and EB III layers from Trench III. Our calibrated dates, refined by Bayesian sequence analysis involving Gibbs sampling, are ca. 150–300 yr older than conventional archaeological age assessments. The corpus of 14C dates measured in the first decades after the discovery of 14C dating should not be taken too seriously. The 14C dates of Jericho measured by the British Museum 14C laboratory in 1971 appear to be erroneous.

Céide Fields is a 12 km2 Neolithic field system in North Mayo in the west of Ireland. The fields, enclosed by an integrated system of stone walls, have been preserved intact by a cover of blanket bog that is >4 m deep in places. At many locations within this blanket bog the stumps of ancient pines (Pinus sylvestris) are found in situ. The pine roots in most cases are either on the surface of the mineral soil under the peat or at an intermediate level in the peat itself. The age of the trees in the bog overlying Céide Fields is therefore of great significance for the dating of the fields, as the trees must be younger than the bog in which they are growing, which in turn must be younger than the field system beneath it. We present here the dates (N = 15) for pine trees from the bogs overlying Céide Fields and the dates (N = 29) of pine trees from other areas of the North Mayo blanket bog. We compare these pine dates with published dates of peat associated with a major pollen analytical study from within the fields and with published dates for bog pine from Scotland. The results of the study suggest that the dates for the construction and period of use of Céide Fields and other Neolithic pre-bog field systems in North Mayo are older than anticipated and that the date for initiation of blanket bog in many parts of North Mayo is also older than previously estimated. Further, the range of dates of the pine stumps indicates a synchronic event contemporary with a similar phenomenon observed in Scotland.

Since 1977, the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo has been reexamining the archaic Royal necropolis Umm el-Qaab at Abydos (ca. 500 km south of Cairo). The necropolis consists of the tomb complexes of six kings and one queen of Dynasty I as well as two kings of Dynasty II in the southern part, the cemetery with royal tombs from Dynasty 0 and early Dynasty I in the middle and the predynastic cemetery in the northern part. Although partly destroyed and deprived of most of their contents, the tombs and the remaining artifacts are a major source for the early dynastic period and are of utmost importance for the understanding of predynastic development during Naqada I–III and the chronology of the formation of Egyptian culture. Sixteen newly 14C-dated samples were mainly taken from remains of wooden roofs and coffins, or in the case of the earliest tombs from mattings. The dating results in general are in good accordance with the relative archaeological dating of the tombs, but 100–150 yr earlier than the so far established historical chronology.

We discuss the radiocarbon chronology of the loess deposited during the Upper Pleniglacial (Isotope Stage II) for the key site of Cosautsi (Republic of Moldova), which presents some major problems in 14C dating. Special care was paid to accurate microstratigraphic positioning of samples, collection of top-quality material (mainly conifer charcoal), and selection of uncontaminated pieces for dating and crossdating with bones by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and/or conventional 14C dating. The results provide reliable and precise information on the sedimentation processes, the succession of short climatic events and the cycle of recurrent human settlements on the site between ∼20,000 and 16,000 bp. Two sets of climatic improvements can be ascribed to interstadial oscillations named, successively, Cosautsi VI (19,500–19,000 bp) and Cosautsi V (18–17,500 bp).

The chief objective of this paper is to improve our understanding of the Neolithic in eastern Hungary using absolute chronological data. To accomplish this we calibrated new measurements as well as previously published dates. The up-to-date, standardized evaluation of 147 calibrated measurements showed temporal overlaps between archaeological cultures defined on the basis of ceramic styles. The average timespan of tell settlements of 285 yr was obtained using radiocarbon dates from four major settlements in eastern Hungary: Berettyóújfalu-Herpály, Hódmezővásáhely-Gorzsa-Cukortanya, Öcsöd-Kováshalom and Polgár-Csőszhalom.

Samples collected at the Chornoliska culture site near the village of Subotiv, Cherkasy region during the 1994–1995 Ukrainian-German expedition were radiocarbon dated in Kiev. The foundation of the Subotiv settlement dates to 1300–1200 cal BC. A skeleton found in one of the buildings at this site is dated at the end of the early period (between 1120 and 1040 cal BC). In the youngest part (a small town) of the Subotiv settlement, we found the remains of a “building sacrifice"—the skeleton of a teenager. The average calibrated date for this skeleton is 834–807 cal BC, whereas the timber from the rampart dates between 902–810 cal BC. Thus, the rampart was apparently built between 834–807 cal BC. Among the objects found on the site were Arzhan-type bone arrowheads. Such arrowheads, when found in Eastern Europe, are believed to indicate the military expansion of Proto-Scythian nomads. The Sargary settlement in western Kazakhstan dates to 960–820 cal BC, the Arzhan arrow in Siberia to 960–850 cal BC. We assume that the Chornogorivka complexes in eastern Eurasia date to the earlier time period (960–820) than those in western Eurasia (834–807). The time of the Chornogorivka expansion on the territory of Ukraine is therefore within the range 834 to 820 BC.

Ca. 150 unequivocal 14C dates from the prehistoric cultures in the Russian Far East can be used to elucidate chrono-cultural boundaries in that region. Microblade technology started as early as ca. 20,000 bp, and continued to exist in the middle Amur River basin until ca. 10,500 bp, and in Primorye until ca. 7800 bp. The emergence of pottery-making in the lower Amur River basin goes back to ca. 13,300 bp. The transition from Upper Paleolithic to Neolithic took place during the time interval 13,300–7800 bp and pottery was widely spread in the Russian Far East by ca. 6700–8400 bp. The first evidence of shellfish collection is estimated to ca. 6400 bp at Peter the Great Gulf coast, Sea of Japan. The beginning of agriculture in Primorye, based on finding of both millet seeds (Setaria italica L.) and pollen of cultivated cereals (Cerealia), is 14C-dated to ca. 4200–3700 bp (ca. 1980–2900 cal BC). The Neolithic/Early Iron Age boundary was estimated at ca. 3100–3300 bp (1400–1600 cal BC) in the mainland Russian Far East, and to ca. 1800–2300 bp (400 cal BC–200 cal ad) on the Sakhalin and southern Kuril Islands.

In the framework of the interdisciplinary project “Settlement History of the Eastern Sahara” at the Universität zu Köln, a large number of sites were excavated during the 1980s in northern Sudan, where the Laqiya-region with the Wadi Shaw and Wadi Sahal was one of the main research areas. About 150 sites have been surveyed and partly excavated. One of these sites, Wadi Shaw 82/52, yielded sherds of a Maidum bowl, which is dateable to the Egyptian IVth and Vth Dynasty. This site was dated by four radiocarbon dates. The dates are compared with the historical chronology of Egypt for the IVth and Vth Dynasty, and are shown to be in good agreement.

A new set of radiocarbon dates from a rockshelter in Mendoza, Argentina addresses the question of the temporal overlap between the presence of an unidentified extinct ground sloth (cf., Mylodontidae) and evidence of human activity. Dung balls on the cave floor, evidently deposited by sloth, are overlain by charcoal, apparently of cultural origin. 14C dates, mostly on charcoal and dung from this shelter, calibrated using recently published curves, as well as the stratigraphy of the deposits from which the samples were collected, suggest that any co-occurrence of humans and ground sloths in this region was brief. In contrast, the single date on mylodon dermal ossicles from this shelter suggests significant time overlap. Replication of this date as well as obtaining new high-precision 14C analyses from this site will be the next priority.

We measured radiocarbon ages of 11 pieces of ancient Japanese documents by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The purpose of this study is to compare the relationship between the calibrated 14C age and the historical age of Japanese paper samples. Calibrated ages of nine pieces agree with their historical ages, indicating that Japanese ancient documents can be used for 14C dating in the recent historic period. On the other hand, the 14C age of paper that was used for reinforcement of a sutra is ca. 300 yr older than the historical age of the sutra. This shows that the sutra was repaired with old paper.

In May 1995 an impressive karstic cave possessing dozens of burials dating to the main phase of the Chalcolithic Period (ca. 4500–3500 bce) was discovered in Peqi'in in the high hills of Galilee in northern Israel. It was subsequently excavated over the course of the following months. The large amount of unique ceramic ossuaries and the variety of burial offerings shed light, for the first time, on this critical societal development period in a region where its remains have rarely been found. Although the major significance of the cave is as a mortuary center, it was also utilized in a domestic capacity some centuries previously, during the generally less familiar Early Chalcolithic Period. We present here the dating of 22 14C samples collected from these separate phases of cave use. Their interpretation should aid in understanding of the absolute dating of the Chalcolithic Period and its relation to the period preceding its inception.

We present here new radiocarbon dates for the different barrows (burial mounds) of the nomadic tribes of the Scythian period in the Khakassia and Tuva regions (Central Asia). The time scale of these barrows is compared with the elite barrows of the Sayan-Altai. In agreement with archaeological evidence, some barrows in Khakassia are chronologically close in time to the Arzhan barrow. The first 14C dates produced for the barrows from the Tuva region belong to a later Scythian period, compared with the elite Arzhan barrow. We determined the final stage of the barrow construction, but to establish the starting time, more dates are necessary (both by dendrochronology and 14C).

In the opencast mine area of Zwenkau, Germany, many prehistoric wells and pits have recently been excavated. In this region there is generally no bone preservation and charred seeds are rare, seldom encountered in a reliable archaeological context, whereas charcoal is frequently found. From an archaeological point of view, however, charcoal from wood is not as reliable for radiocarbon dating as short-lived materials. Fortunately, many deep features were found where wood has been preserved. Over a dozen structures turned out to be prehistoric wells, some of them typologically dated by ceramics to between Early Bronze Age and Early Middle Ages. For other features without archaeological finds, 14C dating was the only way to get an age. Analysis showed that different types of wells were constructed by the same culture. On the other hand, the same constructions are not characteristic for a defined cultural period and were applied over a time span of three millennia.

With >40 14C dates, mainly on bones and charcoal, the site at Son Mas is the only megalithic sanctuary on the Balearic Islands that has been dated by 14C in detail. Although soil erosion made stratigraphy difficult and the monument was cleaned out regularly during its long use, the results demonstrate that the site was occupied from the Pretalayotic (Chalcolithic) until the Roman period. The aim of this study was not only to date the construction and the use of the sanctuary, but also to correlate this monument, by means of dispersion diagrams, with the other prehistoric sites situated within the same valley. The dates were also used to compare the site with the generally accepted chronology of the Balearic archipelago (Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera).

Until recently, the only chronometric technique applied to Sahulian archaeological sites was 14C dating; the ages obtained rarely exceeded 40,000 bp. Belief that the region was first colonized around that time has recently been shaken by luminescence dates from several archaeological sites in northern Australia that suggest people arrived between 60,000 and 55,000 bp. The ensuing debate over their validity revealed that some participants misunderstood luminescence dating and the temporal limitations of 14C dating, illustrated here through a discussion of the tempo and mode of Sahulian colonization. Radiometric techniques cannot distinguish between the models proposed because they are unable to resolve temporal issues that occur within their limits of error.