Expert: John J. Shea - 10/17/2004

Question
What are some pros and cons of radiocarbon dating, if you know any that would be great, or if you know  a informational site that would be great also.


Thanks@!

Answer
Dear K,
The best source of information on this would be any college-level introductory textbook on archaeology.  My students and I use C. Renfrew and P. Bahn (2004) Archaeology: Theories, Methods & Practice, but radiocarbon is so essential to archaeology that nearly every major textbook covers it.
Briefly
Pro:  C-14 is present in all living creatures, so any site with organic remains in it is potentially dateable.  Radiocarbon dates are relatively cheap to have done and easy to interpret.
Con: Limited time range.  >30,000 years ago, there is to little C-14 left to measure it precisely, so dates have large standard errors.  Materials younger than about 500 years ago have had too little time for enough radiocarbon to have decayed to ensure accurate measurement.
The Radiocarbon labs at the University of Arizona and Oxford University both have good websites that are possible sources of additional information.
Cheers,
John Shea