Very incautiously, after printing 25 volumes of Radiocarbon, the editors have authorized some personal reminiscence. Like all “Quaternary scientists”—no better collective name is available for our strange profession—I have been engaged in historiography, writing about history, for many years. In 1946, when natural radiocarbon was discovered, my subject, the sedimentary history of lakes, was only one of several kinds of historical record that needed, and soon received, a new reading. At the time, not all custodians of other kinds of record were ready to agree that new readings were conceivable, let alone necessary. The record of their persuasion—some of which has been written by Greg Marlowe (1980) in “W F Libby and the Archaeologists”—is part of the history of historiography. To the bibliography of this dangerously abstract subject I venture to add some minor footnotes. They come, not from historical research like Marlowe's, but from a leaky, selective memory.

Radiocarbon dating provides the principal chronometric data for the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, Epipalaeolithic, and Chalcolithic periods in the southern Levant. It is a secondary source of dating evidence for the Early Bronze age, when archaeological correlations with Syria and especially Egypt become available. For the Middle and Late Bronze age, Iron age, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, 14C dating has only limited value because the technique is less precise than the normally available archaeologic and historic materials.

We demonstrate the feasibility of pulse time of arrival information for early detection of periodic events in low level counting. Time of arrival data allows us to apply time series analysis and serial correlation tests which, in graphic form, give the user an illustrative view of the parameters affecting the validity of counting statistics. The decision to discontinue counting can already be made on the basis of less than 100 counts from the time information alone if more than 10 of these are non-Poisson periodic counts. The analyses also serve as a means of quality control for low level counting, being directly based upon the interval distribution of the Poisson process.

This list consists of dates of soil samples from selected soil profiles in Tunisia, Sudan, and Argentina. The profiles from Tunisia were taken to elucidate ages of typic paleosols of paleoclimatic significance. The Sudan profiles increase our understanding of pedogenesis of Sudanese Vertisols. The existence of pedoturbation in these profiles is further explored and questioned. The profiles of Argentina were dated to supplement information from chemical and micromorphological studies.

Bomb 14C has been used as a tracer for CO2 in ocean surface water to study CO2 exchange between atmosphere and ocean. Using ordinary cargo ships for sampling, we have been able to cover some parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans for certain periods. A total number of 520 samples from 89 locations were measured during the last 15 years. The data are presented both in tables and graphs. A maximum 14C concentration (Δ14C) of ca 20% was observed in temperate northern latitudes, and a few per cent lower at southern latitudes. A seasonal trend in the 14C variation, with summer maximum and winter minimum, was observed both in downwelling and upwelling areas.

This list contains the results of measurements of 167 groundwater samples made between September 1979 and December 1982. An additional 175 samples were measured, but these were submitted without detailed information, such as sampling depth, well location, etc; therefore, they were excluded from the following list.

Facilities for radiocarbon dating were established at the University of Frankfurt/Main in the Institute of Anthropology. The Radiocarbon Laboratory provides assistance to the Amino-Acid-Dating Laboratory. This list reports on 14C dates measured up to September 1983.

The laboratory is installed in the basement of a three-story building and is equipped with a 2L copper proportional counter filled to 1013 mbar with purified CO2. The counter is protected against cosmic and surrounding radiation by a 3.5 ton lead shield and a copper multiwire anticoincidence ring-counter flushed with purified 90Ar/10CH4. Electronics are of the commercial NIM type. Charcoal and wood samples are treated by standard acid-alkali-acid methods. Bone samples are treated according to the collagen methods described by Berger, Horney, and Libby (1964), Longin (1971), Protsch (1972; 1975), and Protsch and Berger (1973).

Selected stable carbon isotope measurements published in Radiocarbon over a 12-year period have been abstracted, plotted, and summarized, to give more reliable estimates of the mean value and range of δ13C for five classes of natural material (human bone collagen, non-human animal bone collagen, plant materials, wood, and charcoal), and to provide a firmer base line for stable carbon isotope dietary and environmental studies.

This list contains the results of 14C determinations obtained at the laboratory in 1982–1983.

Most of the 14C measurements reported here were made between October 1982 and October 1983. Equipment, measurement, and treatment of samples are as reported previously (R, 1968, v 10, p 36–37; 1976, v 18, p 290; 1980, v 22, p 1045).

Age calculations are based on a contemporary value equal to 95% of the activity of NBS oxalic acid standard (No. 4990A) and on the conventional half-life for 14C of 5568 yr. Results are reported in years before 1950 (years bp). Errors quoted with the dates are based on counting statistics alone and are equivalent to ± 1 standard deviation (±σ).

The following list consists of dates of soil samples, partly produced in the former Bonn laboratory and bearing the code designations, BONN, and partly in the present dating lab at Hamburg University. The list comprises Mollisols and Inceptisols from Germany, sampled by layer and dated as whole soil, hydrolysis residue, and hydrolysate. Other profiles represent selected Australian Vertisols and Krasnozems, sampled by layer as well. Dates derived from marshes of the Elbe River as well as from paleosols buried by coastal levees are also included in the list. Pretreatment of soil samples is described in Scharpenseel and Pietig (1969) and Scharpenseel (1972; 1977).

Although acid leaching of shell carbonates prior to 14C assay is usually desirable, under some circumstances it can worsen contamination by preferentially dissolving unaltered shell and thus increasing the proportion of secondary carbonate. The risk can be eliminated by monitoring the progress of leaching with the help of microscopy and x-ray diffraction.

The following list includes radiocarbon analyses of samples related to studies of Holocene sea levels completed since the publication of the last list (R, 1980, v 22, p 1073–1083). Sample preparation and counting for liquid scintillation samples remain the same. However, an additional gas-proportional facility was added in 1981 to handle the analyses of small samples, some of which are included in this list. The new system consists of two 660cc OFHC copper counters built at Queens College. Samples are counted over at least two 2800 minute intervals alternating with backgrounds and standards counted over 1400 minute intervals. Ages are based on the Libby half-life of 5568 years and include 1σ standard deviations of sample, standard, and background activities.

The following list consists of dates for archaeologic and geologic samples mostly measured from June 1982 to June 1983. The dates were obtained by liquid scintillation counting of benzene using the laboratory procedures outlined in previous lists (see, eg, BM-VIII, R, 1976, v 18, p 16). Dates are expressed in radiocarbon years relative to ad 1950 based on the Libby half-life for 14C of 5570 yr, and are corrected for isotopic fractionation (δ13C values are relative to PDB). No corrections have been made for natural 14C variations. The modern reference standard is NBS oxalic acid (SRM 4990). Errors quoted with dates are based on counting statistics alone and are equivalent to ± 1 standard deviation (± 1σ). Descriptions, comments, and references to publications are based on information supplied by submitters.

This radiocarbon laboratory began operation in 1980 using the benzene scintillation method. The benzene synthesizer is essentially identical with that of Ikeda (1976). A liquid scintillation counter is Aloca LSC-LB1. Samples dated are wood, charcoal, shell, and coral.

Pretreatment of wood and charcoal is a standard acid-alkali procedure, using 2% HCl and 2% NaOH at elevated temperatures. Charcoal is further heated in concentrated HNO3 for one hour, diluted in water, stands one night, and is washed and dried. Pretreated wood and charcoal are carbonized before combustion. The combustion products are passed over CuO, and are collected in an ammonium hydroxide bubbler system, and precipitated with calcium chloride.

The following date list covers samples dated by the La Jolla (Mt Soledad) Radiocarbon Laboratory from January 1979 through August 1982. Most archaeologic, most geologic, and some geochemical samples measured during that period are included here. Results of 14C analyses of samples of tree rings, banded coral rings, and Antarctic seawater dissolved inorganic carbon measured during this period will be published elsewhere. Because of the cessation of all federal grant funding of this laboratory, this is the last date list to be published by it.

This list reports measurements made on archaeologic and geologic samples by our laboratory from June 1982 to December 1983. Results of measurements made during that period which lack review by submitters will be reported in a subsequent date list. Sample preparation techniques and benzene synthesis remain as described previously (R, 1982, v 24, p 344–351). For low organic samples, such as sediments, we now use a combustion tube assembly. These samples are burned under oxygen flow in a quartz tube. To absorb sulfur and break up nitrous compounds, we pass combustion gases through a 50% mixture of MnO2 and CuO wire heated to ca 500°C. The gas is then bubbled through a distilled water and KMnO4 solution to remove chlorides before being introduced into our standard dry ice and CO2 traps.

This date list includes most of the archaeologic and geologic samples dated in this laboratory since publication of our last date list (R, 1981, v 23, p 227–240), as well as some samples dated previously which lacked adequate sample information.

All samples were pretreated with 3N HCl and some, where noted, were given additional pretreatment with 2% NaOH for the removal of possible humic acid contaminants.

The Radiocarbon Laboratory of the Archaeological and Ethnographical Museum in Lódź was established to meet the growing demand for radiocarbon dating of archaeologic and geologic samples. The liquid scintillation technique based on the Polish liquid scintillation counter with a single photomultiplier began operation in 1966. The base for the measurements was ethylbenzene. In 1974 new facilities for the determination of radiocarbon assays were installed. The proportional counter and the electronics supplied by Nuclear Enterprises became routine counting equipment two years later.

This series reports some of the measurements made since publication of the last list (R, 1981, v 23, p 94–135). Also included are a number of earlier dates previously withheld pending submitter evaluation. For some the authors have been unable to obtain appropriate comment. References to other publication of these dates are given where known.

Acetylene proportional gas counting methods essentially remain as described in Saskatchewan II (R, 1960, v 2, p 73). Bone dating is carried out on soluble collagen extract (Longin, 1971) since 1978.