I used to hate radiocarbon dating until I saw it fix a 30 year old debate

I always thought tree ring dating was more reliable, but a dig in Arizona last month had a site everyone argued was either 1100 or 1300 AD. They ran three charcoal samples and got a tight cluster at 1220 AD, which settled it. Has anyone else had a method they dismissed until a specific result changed their mind?

2 comments

2 Comments

kaiharris21d ago

Man, those Arizona sites can be tricky with the stratigraphy. How did they verify the charcoal wasn't from old growth wood, since that can throw off the dates by centuries?

lewis.troy21d ago

Yeah that's a good question. Did they mention doing any species ID on the charcoal to rule out slow growing species?