A new study published in a recent issue of the journal, Science Advances, questions the use of a single calibration curve for the entire Northern Hemisphere in Carbon-14 dating. The authors document small, but substantive regional offsets, partly from growing seasons, in the same-year radiocarbon levels. By comparing data from northern Europe and the Mediterranean, they discovered small, but critical periods of variation in the Mediterranean carbon-14 levels. The authors believe their recalibrated data impacts the dating of Tutankhamen’s tomb, as well as the volcanic eruption on Santorini, which they date to between 1600-1550 B.C. Future studies may lead to more specific regional calibration curves within the Northern Hemisphere, and will likely result in the fine-tuning of historical dates that have been in question.
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