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Hot take: Carbon dating isn't always the slam dunk people think it is.
I spent six months trying to date a pottery shard from a site near Tucson because the carbon sample got contaminated by root water. Has anyone else had lab results come back totally useless?
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ruby_murphy29d ago
Root water contamination" is such a nightmare. Did they try redoing the pretreatment on that shard to get rid of the humic acids, or did the lab just give up on it?
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rowanw3127d ago
Honestly @ruby_murphy I think the lab just gave up because the humic acids were so stubborn. We tried redoing the pretreatment three times and each time the shard came out looking like it swam through a bog. I'm pretty sure at one point I just stared at it and whispered "you win" like a complete weirdo. My PhD advisor would probably disown me if they heard me admit that. But sometimes you gotta know when to fold em, you know?
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