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Re: orion C14 accuracy?
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Dear Robert--
the literature on C-14 is vast and technical; there is, however, a very
good general (and blessedly short) introduction in the series of British
Museum *Reading the Past* introductions that avoids the major pitfalls
while remaining accessible to non-physicists. Otherwise, there is the
journal *Radiocarbon*, plus the special numbers in which it emerges every
now and then in monograph form, the website called, appropriately, C-14,
and so on.
So-called "high precision" radiocarbon dates are all the rage nowadays, and
precision to within 25-35 years of the true date is being claimed,
providing that one can calibrate the general period adequately by "wiggle
matching", dendrochronology, or the like-- that there is no problem with
sample contamination, and so forth.
It is very rare for the Israel Museum to give permission for C-14/AMS
sampling, as the test is destructive of about 1 sq. cm per sample tested,
and for some of the DSS this is simply not practicable. There is also the
question as to what problems one aims to solve by use of futher testing.
The nature of the problem to be solved provides the justification for
further analysis.
best regards,
Fred Cryer