Precision and accuracy in applied 14C dating: : Some findings from the Fourth International Radiocarbon Inter-comparison

Abstract Users in the Quaternary and Archaeological Sciences have expressed a general desire for significant improvements in the accuracy and precision of radiocarbon dating results in general but also allied to the measurement of small samples. The accuracy and precision of measurement has also been the focus of some attention within the 14 C community. As a result, the 14 C community has undertaken a wide-scale, far-reaching and evolving programme of inter-comparisons, to the benefit of laboratories and users alike, the most recent being completed in 2001. The information arising from the studies is important for the appropriate interpretation of the scientific evidence provided by 14 C analyses in calibration and construction of chronologies where assemblages of dates are frequently assessed. In this paper, some preliminary findings from the Fourth International Radiocarbon Inter-comparison, completed in 2001, will be reviewed and some conclusions drawn with regard to accuracy and precision of 14 C dates.