T04_P14

Development of the PATRIC14 project on the ARTEMIS AMS facility for the dating of low-carbon content cultural heritage materials.

Moreau C¹, Thellier B¹, Hain S¹, Beck L¹, Caffy I¹, Delque-Kolic E¹, Dumoulin J¹, Goulas C¹, Perron M¹, Setti V¹, Sieudat M¹

¹Laboratoire de Mesure du Carbone 14 (LMC14), LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

The development of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating technique has made it possible to considerably reduce the quantity of material necessary to carry out a dating. However, for archaeological works or objects low in carbon, the quantities of material to be sampled often remain too voluminous for dating to be considered. This is particularly the case for certain old ferrous objects for which previous studies have revealed very low carbon contents. This is also the case with other materials such as plaster and stucco, materials for sculptural and architectural creation, widely used since the ancient periods of Archeology and Art History. Currently, their dating is based solely on stylistic criteria, which sometimes leads to debate. The objective of the PATRIC14 project is therefore to develop a new instrumental device which will be installed on the ARTEMIS facility, in order to date low carbon content material. The aim is to add a gas ion source to the ARTEMIS facility and to develop a specific gas transfer module - compatible with the LMC14 sample preparation benches - allowing the injection in the AMS of samples directly in gaseous form, avoiding the transformation into solid graphite as at present. This solution will thus make it possible to considerably reduce the quantity of carbon necessary to carry out dating by AMS. The first applications using the new equipment will be carried out in collaboration with the partners of the project in different fields: archaeometry (LAPA), research and restoration (C2RMF) and museum (Louvre).