14Chrono Centre for Climate, the Environment and Chronology - Belfast, UK

Some new research testing the application of ramped pyrolysis radiocarbon dating to ancient plasters from the Mediterranean. Led by Pinar Erdil of CIO, University of Groningen, who we were very happy to host and collaborate with on this project.

Erdil et al. 2026 Ramped pyrolysis radiocarbon dating: First application to Bronze and Iron Age plaster from the Eastern Mediterranean (ca. 1500-800 BCE). Journal of Archaeological Science doi:10.1016/j.jas.2026.106611

Redirecting

Many congratulations to Elisabetta Dixon, who passed her PhD viva yesterday on annual radiocarbon calibration data over the 8.2 ka event with a Bayesian approach to dendrochronology. Her multidisciplinary project which combined cutting slices of fossil pine with complicated chemistry and long mathematical coding sessions, was supervised by Maarten Blaauw, Gill Plunkett and David Brown, and examined by Neil Loader (Swansea University) and Gerard Barrett. We're excited to see what she'll be doing next!

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bor.70048
A recent paper by Mike Simms (National Museums NI) and Paula Reimer (14CHRONO,QUB) on post-glacial sea-level in eastern Northern Ireland using radiocarbon dates on limpets has just been published open access in Boreas.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

An even floppier diskette with calibration software!

A floppy disk with C14 calibration software

How Maarten Blaauw changed his career plans from ice-cream seller to palaeoecologist.

How Queen’s University Belfast became a global hub for decoding Earth’s past – and protecting its future At Queen’s, collaboration across disciplines is more than a slogan: it’s a strategy for innovation. From reconstructing ancient climates to tackling today’s ecological threats, researchers at the university are showing how shared curiosity can help shape policy in the now

Radiocarbon dating conducted at 14CHRONO confirmed the remains of the wildcat, extinct in Ireland, are more than 5,500 years old, dating to the Middle Neolithic period.

Wildcat bones found in Co Clare dated to 5,500 years ago The first directly dated wildcat bones found in Ireland have been identified, confirming that the species inhabited the island more than 5,500 years ago.

An interesting new paper on wind strength in the Southern hemisphere during the deglaciation with our colleagues from South Africa.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0333783

Here's an interesting study to radiocarbon date a very large wooden column in Cahokia (the largest pre-Columbian urban settlement in N. America) as well as to trace the origin of the wood using strontium isotopes.

Age and origin of a Cahokian wooden monument at the Mitchell site, Illinois, USA Cahokia was the first and largest precolonial city outside of Mesoamerica in what is now the United States. Monuments and exotic goods were central to public life at Cahokia, but no high-resolution timeline of monumental construction or long-distance material import exists for the site. Wooden marke...

radiocarbon concentrations in the northern (green) and southern (blue) hemispheres since AD 1945 (sound on!)

radiocarbon concentrations in the northern (green) and southern (blue) hemispheres since AD 1945 better with sound!