AMS RADIOCARBON DATING OF PALEOLITHIC-AGED CHARCOAL FROM EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN RIM USING ABOX-SC

Radiocarbon dating of charcoal >25-30 kyr can be problematic due to contamination from exogeneous carbon and the variable effectiveness of C-14 pretreatments to remove it. Bird et al. (1999) developed the ABOx-SC (acid-base-oxidation-stepped combustion) method for removing contaminants from older charcoal samples, which involves a harsher treatment than traditional acid-base-acid (ABA) pretreatments. This method has been shown to considerably improve the reliability of dating old charcoal front sites in Australia, South Africa, Brazil. and Malaysia (Bird et al. 1999, 2003 Turney et,it. 2001: Santos et al. 2003: Higham et al. 2009a). Here, we apply the technique to material front 5 Paleolithic sites front Europe and the Mediterranean Rim. For 2 of the sites (Kebara Cave, Israel and Taramsa Hill. Egypt). the ABOx-SC and ABA methods produced similar dates. However, in the case of 1 site. the Grotta di Fumane in Italy. ABOx-SC pretreatment produced significantly older results front those of ABA methods. requiring substantial reinterpretation of the archaeological sequence of the site. The rigorous nature of the technique resulted in a high failure rate for sample pretreatment. and insufficient material survived the pretreatment for dating from Grotte des pigeons, Morocco or Gorham's Cave. Gibraltar.