When radiocarbon dating a piece of wood or charcoal, the event dated is the growth of the tree ring. Any charcoal or wood sample that is carbon dated will have an apparent age, which may result in errors of up to hundreds of years unless short-lived tree species or twigs are selected for radiocarbon dating.

What can be used in radiocarbon dating?

Samples that have been radiocarbon dated since the inception of the method include charcoal, wood, twigs, seeds, bones, shells, leather, peat, lake mud, soil, hair, pottery, pollen, wall paintings, corals, blood residues, fabrics, paper or parchment, resins, and water, among others.

Can human remains be used in radiocarbon dating?

Measuring carbon-14 levels in human tissue could help forensic scientists determine age and year of death in cases involving unidentified human remains. In contrast, from 1955 to 1963, atmospheric radiocarbon levels almost doubled.

How do they date human remains?

The Carbon 14, or radiocarbon dating method is one of the best-known methods of dating human fossils and has been around since the late 1940s. The Carbon 14 (14C) dating method is a radiometric dating method. A radiometric dating uses the known rate of decay of radioactive isotopes to date an object.