Site Created by:   Michelle MacPhee

 Discoveries Made by Radiocarbon Dating
 

 Since its discovery, radiocarbon dating has been credited with several impressive findings. 

 This form of dating has verified that the ditch encircling Stonehenge was dug during the initial phase of construction, sometime between 3020-2910 BC. 

 

 More currently, radiocarbon dating, along with a number of other dating methods has precisely dated the abnormal timber circle on the Norfolk beach to between April and June 2049 BC.

 Also, AMS dating has dated small pieces of charred organic matter found in a pit near Oxford to be between 3620-3350 BC.  This is the earliest example of charred bread in the UK and could mean that our human ancestors have been making forms of toast for over 5000 years.

 

 One of radiocarbon dating's most famous discovery is the age of the cloth of Turin Shroud.  It was originally believed to have covered the body of Jesus and to have had the imprint of his face on it.  Radiocarbon dated the Turin Shroud to between 1220-1280 AD, which concluded that it was not from the time of Christ.

Carbon dating has also corrected dates found using earlier methods of dating.  The age of the sediments deposited by the last ice age was found to be approximately 25,000 years.  However, radiocarbon dated the layer of peat beneath the glacial sediments to only about 11.400 years.