Libby’s discovery, now known as the carbon-14 (or radiocarbon) technique, was a method that could be used to determine the age of organic remains. In the following years, archeologists used this technique extensively and determined exact dates for pre-historic settlements in the ancient world. Some Neolithic (later stone age) remains were dated back to fifty thousand years in Russia and Africa. The city of Eriha in Palestine was dated back to eleven thousand years, and was designated as the first permanent human settlement. Today, archeologists and paleontologists employ this technique to determine the age of organic materials (bones, teeth, wood, etc.) that are less than fifty thousand years in age.
We were directed to this page by another archaeological links page and are having some difficulty deciding what to make of it. On the one hand, it kind of provides a good summary of the C-14 method and theory. On the other hand, some of the statements seem to us a bit on the extreme side. For example "ages determined by the radiocarbon method are not taken seriously by archeologists" is simply untrue. There is always some consideration given to the context of the samples, contamination, etc., and often dates that seem out of whack are discarded (or held in abeyance until independently verified).
Many of the issues raised in this little blurb have long been considered by everyone working with radiocarbon dating. It is not assumed, a priori, that the C-14/C-12 ratio has been constant through time. In fact, it has been known for a long time that it has not been constant, and calibration curves have been calculated to correct for this.
For far more (and better) information, check out C14Dating.com maintained by Tom Higham. He's pretty good about answering serious emails regarding C-14 issues.
Fat monks Study: Medieval Monks Were Obese
The jolly image of rotund Friar Tuck could be only partially true, according to a recent study of skeletal remains from monks that lived during the Middle Ages (476-1450 A.D.) that revealed most monks were overweight, but perhaps not entirely jolly because they suffered from conditions associated with obesity, such as arthritis.
The findings, presented last week at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds University in England, shed light on the monastic lifestyle from that period and could help to explain the development of civil unrest against monasteries toward the latter part of the medieval age.
Philippa Patrick, author of the paper and an archaeologist at University College London, made the determinations after analyzing the skeletal collections of the Museum of London, which include remains of medieval monks from St. Mary Graces Abbey, Tower Hill, St. Saviour's Abbey, Bermondsey and Merton Priory.
Patrick, whose study was funded by the U.K. Arts and Humanities Research Board, told Discovery News that by the time most monks were 45 and over, they were three times more likely than the overall population to develop a condition linked to obesity known as DISH, diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis. DISH affects a victim's spine with lesions, making it harder for the person to walk and move.
Experts try to discover diet of 7,000 years ago in Sialk
Iranian archeologists plan to identify the food basket and diet of the people who lived in the historical site of Sialk over 7,000 years ago, Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency reported on Friday.
Located at the edge of the central desert of Iran, near "Kashan", Sialk is considered one of most important and archeologically-rich areas in Iran and experts have already discovered artifacts dating from the fifth to first millennium B.C. there. They have also found out one of the oldest ziggurats of the world in this civilization basin.