Methods of Radiocarbon Determination in Wine and Bone Samples by Gas Proportional Counting Technique

Abstract

ABSTRACTAlthough radiocarbon accelerator mass spectrometry (14C AMS) surpasses conventional radiometric methods in many aspects, they still represent an interesting alternative, especially for studies unconstrained by sample size. Here we showed that the gas proportional counting technique can be used for bone samples, processed only by a simple ABA method, and ethanol, distilled from wine samples. The feasibility of the described methods was verified by successful dating of 11 well-preserved vertebrate bones of modern to 21 kyr BP age excavated from different caves in Slovakia from which collagen was also extracted, as well as by determination of 14C concentration in two modern western Slovakia vintages, which matches well the atmospheric Δ14C level for the respective region and grape vegetation period. Various empiric factors affecting the yield of the thoroughly tested procedures used for processing of samples and their optimization parameters are discussed as well.