C05_05

Southern Levant calibration regional offsets identified by short-lived archaeological materials

Regev J¹, Regev L¹, Uziel J², Gadot Y³, Ben-Ami D², Mintz E¹, Boaretto E¹

¹Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, ²Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem, Israel, ³Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

The topic of regional offsets from the northern hemisphere calibration curve has been gaining attention in recent years as part of a community effort to increase the radiocarbon calibration resolution. Usually, the suggested offsets are identified by modern, known-age samples or tree rings, dendrochronologically dated. Our group has developed over the years microarchaeological tools, which enable radiocarbon-aimed field sampling for high-resolution dating and modeling using short-lived charred remains. These analyses can provide confidence in the archaeological context and stratigraphy in relation to such samples. Therefore, once those sequences are wiggle-matched, they follow the calibration curve with very few outliers.

We have encountered two instances, one in the 1st millennium BC and the other in the 3rd millennium BC, in which our modeled results extended beyond the calibration curve with an excess of ¹⁴C by a few permille. Furthermore, we have found the opposite effect of ¹⁴C depletion when dating the historically known-age destruction event of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC. In those instances, wherever the calibration curve is not based on single tree rings, some Irish oak and/or bristlecone pine samples were additionally measured.