Research

ORAU was one of the first radiocarbon AMS laboratories to be founded in the world.  Since then it has been actively involved in radiocarbon research of almost all kinds.  The range of the research is best seen in our publications list but the key areas of methodological research are:

• the pre-treatment of organic materials - particularly bone
• the use of stable-isotopes to understand food-chains and subsistence
• the interpretation of radiocarbon dates in their archaeological and environmental contexts
• the measurement of very small samples
• direct measurement on carbon dioxide - the use of AMS gas ion sources was pioneered at this laboratory
• high precision AMS - using our new HVEE AMS system
• calibration - particularly with the program OxCal
• the use of wiggle-match dating - a method to achieve calendar-date precision at the decadal level
• GC-AMS - a method of the biological and environmental sciences, also pioneered at this laboratory

The methods developed here are useful in a wide range of applications.  The largest portion of our work is applied to archaeological problems.  We also work in environmental science, the biological sciences and art history.

ORAU is currently involved with the following research projects:

• RESponse of humans to abrupt Environmental Transitions (RESET - a NERC Consortium grant)
• Dating of the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in western Europe using ultrafiltration AMS radiocarbon (NERC, PI Tom Higham)
• Synchronising absolute scientific dating and the Egyptian historical chronology (Leverhulme, PI Christopher Ramsey)
• Fossilised herbivore middens: new perspectives on SW African climate (Leverhulme, PI Prof DSG Thomas, OUCE, Oxford)
• Ancient Human Occupation of Britain 2 (AHOB2: Leverhulme, Director, Chris Stringer NHM)
• Charcoal Degredation in natural environments: implications for radiocarbon dating and the carbon cycle (NERC, PI Prof MI Bird, St Andrews)
• Routine Bayesian modelling of archaeological chronologies (English Heritage, PI Christopher Ramsey) - developments for OxCal4
• Radiocarbon dating bone samples recovered from gravel sites (English Heritage, PI Christopher Ramsey)
• Early human settlement in the Americas: Geoarchaeology and dating in the Valsequillo Basin, Central Mexico (NERC, PI Sylvia Gonzales, Liverpool)

Recent projects in which we have been involved include:

• Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB: Leverhulme, Director, Chris Stringer NHM)
• The Environmental Factors in the Chronology of Human Evolution & Dispersal programme (EFCHED: NERC directed programme)
• Measurement of the radiocarbon production rate at altitude (NERC, PI Christopher Ramsey) - part of the COsmic Radiation Aircraft eXposure eXperiment (CORAXX) programme
• High-resolution absolute chronology for mid-2nd millennium BC New Palace Crete and Aegean world (NERC, PI Sturt Manning, Reading)

See also older publications.