AMS Radiocarbon Dating of Ancient Oriental Iron Artifacts at Nagoya University

Abstract

We present here the current status of AMS dating of iron artifacts at Nagoya University. We initially developed a “wet” method of carbon collection from iron samples, consisting of a resistance furnace and a “wet” trapping of the evolved CO2 with a saturated Ca(OH)2 solution, in which overall collection efficiency of carbon ranged from 50 to 60%. To improve the carbon-collection efficiency, we more recently constructed a “dry” system, consisting of an induction furnace followed by “dry” separation of the produced CO2 from combustion gases and conversion of the CO2 into a graphite target. We describe here mainly the performance of the “dry” separation system, tested using standard steel samples. We also report previously determined 14C dates on three ancient Oriental artifacts using the earlier “wet” procedure.