A laboratory inter-comparison of AMS 14C dating of bones of the Miesenheim IV elk (Rhineland, Germany) and its implications for the date of the Laacher See eruption

We conducted inter-laboratory AMS 14C dating of bones of the Miesenheim IV elk (Rhineland, Germany), buried under Laacher See tephra dated to ca. 11,060 BP (13,000 cal BP). The weighted mean of the new dates, which range from 10,920 to 11,270 BP, is 11,092 ± 19 BP. The consistent results from five AMS laboratories are important in two respects. First, they demonstrate that collagen processed by traditional methods can yield accurate ages; the newly obtained 14C dates are in accord with previous hydroxyproline 14C value generated at the Oxford AMS laboratory within the first round of inter-comparison (Fiedel et al., 2013). The results of the first inter-comparison are clearly flawed, except for hydroxyproline 14C date (see Fiedel et al., 2013), and must be affected by the waxy/dark, presumably humic/organic-based contaminant. Second, they provide a new suite of radiocarbon dates for the Laacher See volcanic eruption, a crucial anchor point for Late Glacial chronology in central Europe.