T02_P06

Testing Protocols for Removing a Commercial Wood Stabilizer from Dry Wood for Radiocarbon Dating

Hadden C¹,  Sheng H¹, Carmody D¹, Cherkinsky A¹

¹Center For Applied Isotope Studies, Athens, United States

Conservation treatments such as wood stabilizers pose challenges for radiocarbon dating because they contain carbon of a different age than the object of study and must be removed completely in order to achieve an accurate radiocarbon age. Wood Juice© is a commercially available wood stabilizer with a proprietary formula that includes petroleum-based ingredients. It has been used recently by museum conservators in the United States to stabilize Native American dugout canoes and other logboats. The purpose of this study was to test whether Wood Juice can be effectively removed from dry wood to achieve reliable radiocarbon dates. For the experiment we intentionally contaminated with Wood Juice (25% by dry weight) a sample of a single-year tree ring from a pre-Columbian dugout canoe with a radiocarbon age of 459 ± 10 ¹⁴C yr. We tested the effectiveness of several common chemical pretreatment protocols for removing the Wood Juice, including a standard acid/base/acid (ABA) protocol, α-cellulose extraction, and a variety of organic solvents. We determined that ABA and α-cellulose protocols easily and effectively removed 100% of the contaminating carbon, without the need for an organic solvent. The results of this study will be of interest to radiocarbon researchers, archaeologists, and museum conservators working with canoes, logboats, and other wooden artifacts.