Catching Time: A Workshop on the Dos and Don’ts of Radiocarbon Dating and Calibration

By TII Senior Archaeologist James Eogan

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) is committed to working with partners in the academic and consultancy sectors to ensure that quality is to the forefront in the delivery of archaeological services on TII-funded projects. TII is a partner in the Seeing Beyond the Site project based in the Department of Archaeology, University College Cork, which is funded through the Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research (INSTAR) programme. As part of this research, a large number of radiocarbon dates from road scheme excavations were examined. This led to the realisation that firstly there was scope to improve sampling strategies during excavation and secondly that there was a need to enhance the knowledge and awareness of TII Project Archaeologists and archaeologists employed by archaeological consultancies of issues surrounding the selection and dating of samples using radiocarbon. These professionals are primarily responsible for selecting samples proposed for radiocarbon dating and interpreting the subsequent results, and using the data to tell the story of past human activity on an individual site or in a region.

In the summer of 2019, archaeologists from Archaeological Management Solutions (AMS) carried out nine excavations on the route of the N69 Listowel Bypass prior to the commencement of road construction. During the excavations, an opportunity arose to hold a workshop for AMS and TII staff working on the project focussing on the selection of samples for radiocarbon dating, the calibration of radiocarbon dates and the building of chronological models.

The workshop was delivered by Dr Katharina Becker, one of the principal investigators on the Seeing Beyond the Site project, and Dr Derek Hamilton, an archaeologist at the SUERC radiocarbon dating laboratory, University of Glasgow. Katharina and Derek’s presentations were recorded and can be viewed on TII’s YouTube channel.

TII would like to record their thanks to AMS and their staff, Kerry County Council and the Seeing Beyond the Site project team for participating in this initiative and enabling the wider dissemination of the content of this workshop.

(Posted 21 April 2020)