A COMPARISON OF CELLULOSE EXTRACTION AND ABA PRETREATMENT METHODS FOR AMS C-14 DATING OF ANCIENT WOOD

We have compared accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon results on wood samples at or near the limit of C-14 dating, pretreated with a standard acid-base-acid (ABA) protocol, with those obtained from cellulose prepared from the same samples by several modifications of the Jayme-Wise cellulose extraction method (Green 1963). These tests were carried out to determine the most efficient way to ensure low backgrounds in C-14 measurements of well-preserved ancient wood samples.