New Dating Method

www.eurekalert.org March 23rd … a new method to determine the age of ancient relics has been announced by the American Chemical Society. It will revolutionise radiocarbon dating and raises the possibility for analysing extensive museum collections that have previously been off limits because of their rarity and the destructive nature of the current C14 dating methodology. Don’t expect any radical redating of Egyptian NK artefacts however or those of the Mycenaean Greeks as this is just a new way of performing radio carbon testing. C14 dating estimates the age of an artefact bused on it’s content of C14, a naturally occurring radioactive from of carbon. C14 levels wihin the object are then compared to levels of C14 expected in the atmosphere for a particular historic period. The old methodology required the removal of a sample, treating it with acid or a strong base, and finally burning the sample in a small glass chamber to produce carbon dioxide gas in order to analyse the C14 content. In the new method the entire artefact is placed in a chamber filled with plasma, an electrically charged gas. The gas slowly and gently oxidises the surface of the object to produce the carbon dioxide neccessary for C14 analysis. An Egyptian NK piece of weaved material has already been checked out and has produced a date consistent with conventional chronology – so no hope of finding an anomaly = bad news for revisionists (see also www.sciencedaily.com March 23rd).