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Radiocarbon Dating

Radiocarbon dating has altogether changed the way we think about the past.  It has openned our eyes to the past, and has allowed us to dig further than ever before into our earth's history. 

The discovery of radiocarbon, or Carbon-14 dating was conceivably the single most important development for archaeology in the 20 ^th century.  It was developed in 1949 at the University of Chicago by a team of researchers lead by  W.F. Libby, and including  J.R. Arnold and E.C. Anderson.  In 1960, Libby won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work. 

Since its' discovery, radiocarbon dating has become an indispensable tool for archaeologists.  It has provided a means for accurately dating deposits without the need of additional artifacts, or local stratigraphic progressions.   Eliminating these has greatly simplified archaeological methods.  Radiocarbon dating is not only being used in the field of archaeology.  It also has substantial applications in the fields of hydrology, atmospheric science, oceanography, geology, palaeoclimatology, archaeology and biomedicine