Determining 14C Content in Different Human Tissues: Implications for Application of 14C Bomb-Spike Dating in Forensic Medicine

Lucio Calcagnile, Gianluca Quarta, Cristina Cattaneo, Marisa D’Elia

Abstract


Various samples extracted from human tissues (with different radiocarbon turnover rates) of a post-bomb human body were submitted to accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating: hair; a cortical fraction of a skull bone; a trabecular fraction of a pubic symphysis; and enamel extracted from permanent teeth with different dates of formation were analyzed. The analyzed samples showed varying 14C concentrations corresponding to different times of formation or different turnover rates. The implications of the results in forensics studies are discussed.

DOI: 10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16205


Keywords


Radiocarbon dating, Forensics, bomb peak dating

Full Text:

PDF