Radiocarbon calibration in the East Mediterranean region: The East Mediterranean radiocarbon comparison Project (EMRCP) and the current state of play

This chapter offers a brief preliminary report on some aspects of the on-going EMRCP (as of AD 2004). The following findings are made: (1) generally Aegean and East Mediterranean samples can be used with the standard mid-latitude northern hemisphere calibration datasets (the IntCal curves); (2) that some small offsets exist particularly at times of significant solar minima including during the 8th century BCE. It is one of the fundamental tenets of radiocarbon dating that within each hemisphere the preindustrial atmosphere was sufficiently well mixed to permit the use of a universal 14C calibration dataset. Radiocarbon measurements available through to the early 1990s (e.g. Vogel et al. 1993; Stuiver and Becker 1993), as well as General Circulation Models (GCM) (Braziunas, Fung, and Stuiver 1995), supported this prerequisite. But then several studies reported significant location-dependent 14C differences (see McCormac, Baillie, and Pilcher 1995, and references therein). Such issues could affect high-resolution radiocarbon dating. The EMRCP was therefore established to investigate this and related topics with specific reference to the accurate and precise employment of radiocarbon dating in the prehistoric Aegean and east Mediterranean region. In a first stage of work we compared 14C time series obtained from two key areas relevant for this issue-Central Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean-based on decadal wood samples from German Oak (from southern Germany) and Turkish pine (from Catacik forest in western Anatolia) and juniper (from the archaeological site of Gordion and area dendrochronology).