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 CO 2 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 CO 2 from combustion gases and conversion of the CO 2 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 14 C dates on three ancient Oriental artifacts using the earlier “wet” procedure.