Words of warning about radiocarbon dating medieval human bones (nature.com)

51 pointsby gumbya day ago6 comments

4ndrewl 5 hours ago

I thought this was a well known effect - it's certainly filtered down to some paperback popsci archaeology books I've read in the past few years.

bcraven 3 hours ago

This appears to be a comment, highlighting a case study that demonstrates the effect in detail.

It is not purporting to show it as 'new'.

Legend2440 an hour ago

I remember reading about it as a kid, in 1990s creationist books that were attempting to argue that carbon dating couldn't be trusted and the world was actually only 6,000 years old.

pvaldes 16 hours ago

Yep. I suspected that that arctic shark couldn't be so old.

gus_massa 9 hours ago

I think the age is calculated counting the "rings" in ... [looking at google] ... the vertebrae.

archimedes237 an hour ago

Defiling the dead bodies of monks...