Radiocarbon Dating

Radiocarbon Dating

The Radiocarbon Dating lab closed in August 2010 with the retirement of Howard Melville.  We are grateful to Howie for his many years of devoted service.  The following has been kept online for information only.  It includes a file of all records produced by this lab.  M.J. Head (Chair, Department of Earth Sciences, 12 September 2010).

LAB CLOSING

Thank you to all of my customers over the last 39 years.  The lab will be closing down at the end of this summer.  In order to facilitate this please contact me as soon as possible if you are planning on submitting samples for Radiocarbon Dating.

Best wishes to everyone.  Howard Melville

Since 1971, the Department of Earth Sciences at Brock University has operated a commercial Radiocarbon Dating Service processing typical sample types such as wood, charcoal, peat, gyttja, shells and bones. The material is pretreated to remove contaminants, processed and the results calibrated using the Calib 4.1 program supplied by the University of Washington, Seattle.

Rates

$300.00 Cdn. per sample of wood, charcoal, peat, gyttja or shell
$350.00 Cdn. per sample of bone

Request for Radiocarbon Age Determination Form (rtf)

File of all radiocarbon dates

The following file includes the record of all radiocarbon dates that have been processed at Brock University since the lab began operation in 1971. The data are listed by BGS file number and include the name and affiliation of the person who submitted the sample, the nature of the sample and the resulting radiocarbon age and range. Additional information is also presented but varies from sample to sample.

View file of all of the records (html) NOTE: This file is over 12.2MB

Use your browser's "find" function (ctrl-f) to find specific information in the file.

A recent assignment

This funerary mask from about the 22nd Egyptian Dynasty (around 850 BC) represents an unknown male of middle to upper-middle class. These effigies were attached to sarcophagus lids to aid recognition by the gods in the afterlife. The specimen was submitted for radiocarbon analysis by Robert Onsted, proprietor of Manor Antiquities, to verify its antiquity. A date of 2760±90 calibrated years BP (810±90 BC) was obtained by the Brock University radiocarbon facility (BGS 2665, Dec 05). The level of uncertainly (±90 years) reflects the small sample size available.