A Comparison of Cellulose Extraction and ABA Pretreatment Methods for AMS 14C Dating of Ancient Wood

Abstract

We have compared accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon results on wood samples at or near the limit of 14C dating, pretreated with a standard acid-base-acid (ABA) protocol, with those obtained from cellulose prepared from the same samples by several modifications of the Jayme-Wise cellulose extraction method (Green 1963). These tests were carried out to determine the most efficient way to ensure low backgrounds in 14C measurements of well-preserved ancient wood samples.