14C Laboratorium Datowań Bezwzględnych

After ‘Radiocarbon Dating’ by Walanus & Goslar:
With the ¹⁴C method it is possible to date the most various materials, of which sometimes we would not even suspect the fact that they contain carbon. In the website of the Waikato Laboratory (New Zealand) one may find impressively long list of materials: charcoal, wood, branches and twigs, grains, bones, sea and river shells, skin, peat, coprolites, bottom lake deposits, gyttja, soil, ice from drillings, plant pollen, hair, ceramics, metal ores, wall paintings, steel, meteorites, bird eggs, corals, foraminifers, cave incrustations, tuffs, blood traces, tissue, paper, parchment, remains of fish, insects, resin, glue, antlers, horns, water. Possibilities of the age measurement of non-typical materials should be consulted with the Laboratory. Typical materials are briefly discussed below.

Wood, charcoals, plant seeds and other macroscopic plant remains

These materials are rather resistant to pollution. They are very good for dating.
Botanical determination of the plant species or genus is usually desirable. The recognition of the species is important for avoiding plants living in the aqueous environment (it concerns ‘the reservoir effect’). Typical macroscopic plant remains used for dating, except charcoals and cereal seeds, are fruits and other seeds, e.g. birch nuts, or various plant organs, as birch hulls, stalks of mosses, or tissue fragments, e.g. periderma.

~~Bones~~

It is the collagen distinguished from the bones that is the subject of the age measurement. The collagen is a relatively long-lasting substance, not exchanging carbon with the surroundings during lying of the bones in the soil. However, laboratory preparation of the bones is difficult and time-consuming. Separation of the collagen, which may be present in very small quantities, requires application of special procedures. The simplest criterion of the assessment of the state of preservation of the collagen is its content in the bone.

Shells

Shells of aqueous molluscs, especially the lake species, are not fitted to the age measurement. On the account of high diversity of the carbon sources, from which the organisms are taking this element, relatively high ageing would be possible.

Weight and dimensions of the objects for the measurement (mass of samples)

The subject of the measurements is carbon and various substances or objects may contain different amounts of this elements; the carbon concentrations may be higher or lower. Therefore, depending on the kind of material, the required masses of samples are different.