P Naysmith
Biographic Data
| ID | 5597122 |
|---|---|
| NAME | P Naysmith |
| GIVEN NAMES | P |
| FAMILY NAME | Naysmith |
| SIGNATURE | NAYSMITH P |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 186 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Preliminary Results From Glasgow International Radiocarbon Intercomparison
GIRI (Glasgow International Radiocarbon Intercomparison) was designed to meet a number of objectives, including to provide an independent assessment of the analytical quality of the laboratory/measurement and an opportunity for a laboratory to participate and improve (if needed). The principles in the design of GIRI were to provide the following: (a) a series of unrelated individual samples, spanning the dating age range, (b) linked samples to ea…
Routine Quality Assurance in the Suerc Radiocarbon Laboratory
The SUERC Radiocarbon Laboratory reports approximately 3000 unknown samples per year with an additional 1200 samples processed for quality assurance purposes. In addition to the primary OxII standard (SRM-4990C) required for AMS batch normalization, secondary “known-age” standards have been used over many years to evaluate individual batch quality. These have included wood (as prepared alpha-cellulose), barley mash, humic acid, a background mammo…
Learning from the Wood Samples in ICS, Tiri, Firi, Viri, and Siri
Each of the laboratory intercomparisons (from ICS onwards) has included wood samples, many of them dendrochronologically dated. In the early years, as a result of the majority of laboratories being radiometric, these samples were typically blocks of 20–40 rings, but more recently (SIRI), they have been single ring samples. The sample ages have spanned background through to modern. In some intercomparisons, we have examined different wood pretreat…
Should Archaeologists Care about 14 C Intercomparisons? Why? A Summary Report on Siri
Radiocarbon ( 14 C) dating is used widely in many projects as a basis for the creation and testing of chronological constructs. 14 C measurements are by their nature complex and the degree of sample pretreatment varies considerably depending on the material. Within the United Kingdom and Europe, there are a number of well-established laboratories and increasingly, archaeologists are not just commissioning new dates, but also using statistical mod…
Preliminary Results for Estimating the Bone Background Uncertainties at Suerc Using Statistical Analysis
Bone is frequently dated in archaeological studies and, especially for very old bones (more than 40,000 years old), it is critical to have an accurate and precise measure of the material-specific background value and its associated uncertainty. The SUERC Radiocarbon Laboratory has obtained a mammoth bone as a background bone standard and an appropriate number are now routinely prepared and measured in each AMS batch, resulting in the accumulation…
Investigation of the Analytical F 14 C Bone Background Value at Suerc
The SUERC Radiocarbon Laboratory employs a one-step “background subtraction” method when calculating 14 C ages. An interglacial wood (VIRI Sample K) is employed as the non-bone organic background standard, while a mammoth bone (LQH12) from Latton Quarry is used as the bone background standard. Results over several years demonstrate that the bone background is consistently around a factor of two higher and more variable than the wood background. A…
AMS 14 C Dating at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (Suerc) Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory
This paper describes all the major procedures adopted by the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory. This includes sample pretreatment, graphite production, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurement, associated stable isotope measurements, data handling, and age calculations, but with the main emphasis being on the chemical pretreatment methods. All of the above enable the laboratory to pro…
Assessment of Infinite-Age Bones from the Upper Thames Valley, UK, as 14C Background Standards
It is becoming increasingly clear that in order to generate accurate radiocarbon dates for bone collagen samples it is important to determine a sample-specific background correction to account for the greater complexity and higher number of steps in the pretreatment chemistry of this material. To provide suitable samples for the 14 C community, 7 bone samples were obtained from contexts within British gravel quarries, which according to other dat…
Assessment of Infinite-Age Bones from the Upper Thames Valley, UK, as 14 C Background Standards
It is becoming increasingly clear that in order to generate accurate radiocarbon dates for bone collagen samples it is important to determine a sample-specific background correction to account for the greater complexity and higher number of steps in the pretreatment chemistry of this material. To provide suitable samples for the 14 C community, 7 bone samples were obtained from contexts within British gravel quarries, which according to other dat…
Update on the Performance of the Suerc In Situ Cosmogenic 14 C Extraction Line
In this paper, we describe improvements to the in situ cosmogenic radiocarbon extraction system at SUERC made since 2004, highlighting the factors that potentially control the reduction of analytical variability. We also present new results on system blanks and of measurements of in situ 14 C in shielded quartz and a surface quartz sample used at the University of Arizona as an in situ 14 C standard (PP-4). The SUERC in situ 14 C extraction syste…
C AMS at Suerc
In 2003, a National Electrostatics Corporation (NEC) 5MV tandem accelerator mass spectrometer was installed at SUERC, providing the radiocarbon laboratory with 14 C measurements to 4–5‰ repeatability. In 2007, a 250kV single-stage accelerator mass spectrometer (SSAMS) was added to provide additional 14 C capability and is now the preferred system for 14 C analysis. Changes to the technology and to our operations are evident in our copious quality…
High-Precision Radiocarbon Dating of the Construction Phase of Oakbank Crannog, Loch Tay, Perthshire
Many of the Loch Tay crannogs were built in the Early Iron Age and so calibration of the radiocarbon ages produces very broad calendar age ranges due to the well-documented Hallstatt plateau in the calibration curve. However, the large oak timbers that were used in the construction of some of the crannogs potentially provide a means of improving the precision of the dating through subdividing them into decadal or subdecadal increments, dating the…
Radiocarbon and Blue Optically Stimulated Luminescence Chronologies of the Oitavos Consolidated Dune (Western Portugal)
The dune of Oitavos, the underlying paleosol, and Helix sp. gastropod shells found within the paleosol were dated using a combination of radiocarbon and blue optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). The organic component of the paleosol produced a significantly older age (∼20,000 cal BP) than the OSL age measurement (∼15,000 yr), while 14 C age measurements on the inorganic component and the gastropods produced ages of ∼35,000 yr and ∼34,000 yr, …
Preliminary Results for the Extraction and Measurement of Cosmogenic in Situ 14 C from Quartz
Radiocarbon is produced within minerals at the earth's surface (in situ production) by a number of spallation reactions. Its relatively short half-life of 5730 yr provides us with a unique cosmogenic nuclide tool for the measurement of rapid erosion rates (>10 −3 cm yr −1 ) and events occurring over the past 25 kyr. At SUERC, we have designed and built a vacuum system to extract 14 C from quartz which is based on a system developed at the Univers…
Sources of Anthropogenic 14 C to the North Sea
The Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant on the northwest coast of England is the largest source of anthropogenic radiocarbon to the UK coastal environment. In a mid-1990s study of 14 C distribution around the UK coast, the pattern of dilution with increasing distance from Sellafield appeared to be perturbed by anomalously high 14 C activities in marine biota in the coastal environment of northeast England. This present study was undertaken…
Capabilities of the New Suerc 5MV AMS Facility for 14 C Dating
A new National Electrostatic Corporation (NEC) 5MV accelerator mass spectrometer became operational at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) in July 2002. It has 2 Cs sputter negative ion sources: a 134-sample source (S1) for the routine measurement of all species, and a hybrid source (S2) with 40 spaces for radiocarbon measurements with either graphite or CO 2 samples. A number of performance tests on graphite samples h…
Is there a Fifth International Radiocarbon Intercomparison (Viri)
The issue of comparability of measurements (and thus bias, accuracy, and precision of measurement) from diverse laboratories is one which has been the focus of some attention both within the radiocarbon community and the wider user communities. As a result, the 14 C community has undertaken a widescale, far-reaching, and evolving program of intercomparisons, to the benefit of laboratories and users alike. The benefit to the users is, however, ind…
Is Comparability of 14 C Dates an Issue
For more than 15 years, the radiocarbon community has participated in a series of laboratory intercomparisons in response to the issue of comparability of measurements as perceived within the wider user communities (Scott et al. 1990; Rozanski et al. 1992; Gulliksen and Scott 1995; Scott et al. 1997). In this report, we provide an update on the current 14 C laboratory intercomparison and reflect on future issues linked to the laboratory intercomp…
Is there a Fifth International Radiocarbon Intercomparison (Viri)
The issue of comparability of measurements (and thus bias, accuracy, and precision of measurement) from diverse laboratories is one which has been the focus of some attention both within the radiocarbon community and the wider user communities. As a result, the 14 C community has undertaken a widescale, far-reaching, and evolving program of intercomparisons, to the benefit of laboratories and users alike. The benefit to the users is, however, ind…
AMS 14 C Dating at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (Suerc) Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory
This paper describes all the major procedures adopted by the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory. This includes sample pretreatment, graphite production, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurement, associated stable isotope measurements, data handling, and age calculations, but with the main emphasis being on the chemical pretreatment methods. All of the above enable the laboratory to pro…
Should Archaeologists Care about 14 C Intercomparisons? Why? A Summary Report on Siri
Radiocarbon ( 14 C) dating is used widely in many projects as a basis for the creation and testing of chronological constructs. 14 C measurements are by their nature complex and the degree of sample pretreatment varies considerably depending on the material. Within the United Kingdom and Europe, there are a number of well-established laboratories and increasingly, archaeologists are not just commissioning new dates, but also using statistical mod…
Capabilities of the New Suerc 5MV AMS Facility for 14 C Dating
A new National Electrostatic Corporation (NEC) 5MV accelerator mass spectrometer became operational at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) in July 2002. It has 2 Cs sputter negative ion sources: a 134-sample source (S1) for the routine measurement of all species, and a hybrid source (S2) with 40 spaces for radiocarbon measurements with either graphite or CO 2 samples. A number of performance tests on graphite samples h…
C AMS at Suerc
In 2003, a National Electrostatics Corporation (NEC) 5MV tandem accelerator mass spectrometer was installed at SUERC, providing the radiocarbon laboratory with 14 C measurements to 4–5‰ repeatability. In 2007, a 250kV single-stage accelerator mass spectrometer (SSAMS) was added to provide additional 14 C capability and is now the preferred system for 14 C analysis. Changes to the technology and to our operations are evident in our copious quality…
Learning from the Wood Samples in ICS, Tiri, Firi, Viri, and Siri
Each of the laboratory intercomparisons (from ICS onwards) has included wood samples, many of them dendrochronologically dated. In the early years, as a result of the majority of laboratories being radiometric, these samples were typically blocks of 20–40 rings, but more recently (SIRI), they have been single ring samples. The sample ages have spanned background through to modern. In some intercomparisons, we have examined different wood pretreat…
Assessment of Infinite-Age Bones from the Upper Thames Valley, UK, as 14 C Background Standards
It is becoming increasingly clear that in order to generate accurate radiocarbon dates for bone collagen samples it is important to determine a sample-specific background correction to account for the greater complexity and higher number of steps in the pretreatment chemistry of this material. To provide suitable samples for the 14 C community, 7 bone samples were obtained from contexts within British gravel quarries, which according to other dat…
Preliminary Results for the Extraction and Measurement of Cosmogenic in Situ 14 C from Quartz
Radiocarbon is produced within minerals at the earth's surface (in situ production) by a number of spallation reactions. Its relatively short half-life of 5730 yr provides us with a unique cosmogenic nuclide tool for the measurement of rapid erosion rates (>10 −3 cm yr −1 ) and events occurring over the past 25 kyr. At SUERC, we have designed and built a vacuum system to extract 14 C from quartz which is based on a system developed at the Univers…
Update on the Performance of the Suerc In Situ Cosmogenic 14 C Extraction Line
In this paper, we describe improvements to the in situ cosmogenic radiocarbon extraction system at SUERC made since 2004, highlighting the factors that potentially control the reduction of analytical variability. We also present new results on system blanks and of measurements of in situ 14 C in shielded quartz and a surface quartz sample used at the University of Arizona as an in situ 14 C standard (PP-4). The SUERC in situ 14 C extraction syste…
Preliminary Results From Glasgow International Radiocarbon Intercomparison
GIRI (Glasgow International Radiocarbon Intercomparison) was designed to meet a number of objectives, including to provide an independent assessment of the analytical quality of the laboratory/measurement and an opportunity for a laboratory to participate and improve (if needed). The principles in the design of GIRI were to provide the following: (a) a series of unrelated individual samples, spanning the dating age range, (b) linked samples to ea…
Preliminary Results for Estimating the Bone Background Uncertainties at Suerc Using Statistical Analysis
Bone is frequently dated in archaeological studies and, especially for very old bones (more than 40,000 years old), it is critical to have an accurate and precise measure of the material-specific background value and its associated uncertainty. The SUERC Radiocarbon Laboratory has obtained a mammoth bone as a background bone standard and an appropriate number are now routinely prepared and measured in each AMS batch, resulting in the accumulation…
Investigation of the Analytical F 14 C Bone Background Value at Suerc
The SUERC Radiocarbon Laboratory employs a one-step “background subtraction” method when calculating 14 C ages. An interglacial wood (VIRI Sample K) is employed as the non-bone organic background standard, while a mammoth bone (LQH12) from Latton Quarry is used as the bone background standard. Results over several years demonstrate that the bone background is consistently around a factor of two higher and more variable than the wood background. A…
Is Comparability of 14 C Dates an Issue
For more than 15 years, the radiocarbon community has participated in a series of laboratory intercomparisons in response to the issue of comparability of measurements as perceived within the wider user communities (Scott et al. 1990; Rozanski et al. 1992; Gulliksen and Scott 1995; Scott et al. 1997). In this report, we provide an update on the current 14 C laboratory intercomparison and reflect on future issues linked to the laboratory intercomp…
Routine Quality Assurance in the Suerc Radiocarbon Laboratory
The SUERC Radiocarbon Laboratory reports approximately 3000 unknown samples per year with an additional 1200 samples processed for quality assurance purposes. In addition to the primary OxII standard (SRM-4990C) required for AMS batch normalization, secondary “known-age” standards have been used over many years to evaluate individual batch quality. These have included wood (as prepared alpha-cellulose), barley mash, humic acid, a background mammo…
High-Precision Radiocarbon Dating of the Construction Phase of Oakbank Crannog, Loch Tay, Perthshire
Many of the Loch Tay crannogs were built in the Early Iron Age and so calibration of the radiocarbon ages produces very broad calendar age ranges due to the well-documented Hallstatt plateau in the calibration curve. However, the large oak timbers that were used in the construction of some of the crannogs potentially provide a means of improving the precision of the dating through subdividing them into decadal or subdecadal increments, dating the…
Radiocarbon and Blue Optically Stimulated Luminescence Chronologies of the Oitavos Consolidated Dune (Western Portugal)
The dune of Oitavos, the underlying paleosol, and Helix sp. gastropod shells found within the paleosol were dated using a combination of radiocarbon and blue optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). The organic component of the paleosol produced a significantly older age (∼20,000 cal BP) than the OSL age measurement (∼15,000 yr), while 14 C age measurements on the inorganic component and the gastropods produced ages of ∼35,000 yr and ∼34,000 yr, …
Sources of Anthropogenic 14 C to the North Sea
The Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant on the northwest coast of England is the largest source of anthropogenic radiocarbon to the UK coastal environment. In a mid-1990s study of 14 C distribution around the UK coast, the pattern of dilution with increasing distance from Sellafield appeared to be perturbed by anomalously high 14 C activities in marine biota in the coastal environment of northeast England. This present study was undertaken…
Is Comparability of 14 C Dates an Issue
For more than 15 years, the radiocarbon community has participated in a series of laboratory intercomparisons in response to the issue of comparability of measurements as perceived within the wider user communities (Scott et al. 1990; Rozanski et al. 1992; Gulliksen and Scott 1995; Scott et al. 1997). In this report, we provide an update on the current 14 C laboratory intercomparison and reflect on future issues linked to the laboratory intercomp…
Is there a Fifth International Radiocarbon Intercomparison (Viri)
The issue of comparability of measurements (and thus bias, accuracy, and precision of measurement) from diverse laboratories is one which has been the focus of some attention both within the radiocarbon community and the wider user communities. As a result, the 14 C community has undertaken a widescale, far-reaching, and evolving program of intercomparisons, to the benefit of laboratories and users alike. The benefit to the users is, however, ind…
Preliminary Results for the Extraction and Measurement of Cosmogenic in Situ 14 C from Quartz
Radiocarbon is produced within minerals at the earth's surface (in situ production) by a number of spallation reactions. Its relatively short half-life of 5730 yr provides us with a unique cosmogenic nuclide tool for the measurement of rapid erosion rates (>10 −3 cm yr −1 ) and events occurring over the past 25 kyr. At SUERC, we have designed and built a vacuum system to extract 14 C from quartz which is based on a system developed at the Univers…
Sources of Anthropogenic 14 C to the North Sea
The Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant on the northwest coast of England is the largest source of anthropogenic radiocarbon to the UK coastal environment. In a mid-1990s study of 14 C distribution around the UK coast, the pattern of dilution with increasing distance from Sellafield appeared to be perturbed by anomalously high 14 C activities in marine biota in the coastal environment of northeast England. This present study was undertaken…
Capabilities of the New Suerc 5MV AMS Facility for 14 C Dating
A new National Electrostatic Corporation (NEC) 5MV accelerator mass spectrometer became operational at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) in July 2002. It has 2 Cs sputter negative ion sources: a 134-sample source (S1) for the routine measurement of all species, and a hybrid source (S2) with 40 spaces for radiocarbon measurements with either graphite or CO 2 samples. A number of performance tests on graphite samples h…
Radiocarbon and Blue Optically Stimulated Luminescence Chronologies of the Oitavos Consolidated Dune (Western Portugal)
The dune of Oitavos, the underlying paleosol, and Helix sp. gastropod shells found within the paleosol were dated using a combination of radiocarbon and blue optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). The organic component of the paleosol produced a significantly older age (∼20,000 cal BP) than the OSL age measurement (∼15,000 yr), while 14 C age measurements on the inorganic component and the gastropods produced ages of ∼35,000 yr and ∼34,000 yr, …
Update on the Performance of the Suerc In Situ Cosmogenic 14 C Extraction Line
In this paper, we describe improvements to the in situ cosmogenic radiocarbon extraction system at SUERC made since 2004, highlighting the factors that potentially control the reduction of analytical variability. We also present new results on system blanks and of measurements of in situ 14 C in shielded quartz and a surface quartz sample used at the University of Arizona as an in situ 14 C standard (PP-4). The SUERC in situ 14 C extraction syste…
C AMS at Suerc
In 2003, a National Electrostatics Corporation (NEC) 5MV tandem accelerator mass spectrometer was installed at SUERC, providing the radiocarbon laboratory with 14 C measurements to 4–5‰ repeatability. In 2007, a 250kV single-stage accelerator mass spectrometer (SSAMS) was added to provide additional 14 C capability and is now the preferred system for 14 C analysis. Changes to the technology and to our operations are evident in our copious quality…
High-Precision Radiocarbon Dating of the Construction Phase of Oakbank Crannog, Loch Tay, Perthshire
Many of the Loch Tay crannogs were built in the Early Iron Age and so calibration of the radiocarbon ages produces very broad calendar age ranges due to the well-documented Hallstatt plateau in the calibration curve. However, the large oak timbers that were used in the construction of some of the crannogs potentially provide a means of improving the precision of the dating through subdividing them into decadal or subdecadal increments, dating the…
Assessment of Infinite-Age Bones from the Upper Thames Valley, UK, as 14C Background Standards
It is becoming increasingly clear that in order to generate accurate radiocarbon dates for bone collagen samples it is important to determine a sample-specific background correction to account for the greater complexity and higher number of steps in the pretreatment chemistry of this material. To provide suitable samples for the 14 C community, 7 bone samples were obtained from contexts within British gravel quarries, which according to other dat…
Assessment of Infinite-Age Bones from the Upper Thames Valley, UK, as 14 C Background Standards
It is becoming increasingly clear that in order to generate accurate radiocarbon dates for bone collagen samples it is important to determine a sample-specific background correction to account for the greater complexity and higher number of steps in the pretreatment chemistry of this material. To provide suitable samples for the 14 C community, 7 bone samples were obtained from contexts within British gravel quarries, which according to other dat…
AMS 14 C Dating at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (Suerc) Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory
This paper describes all the major procedures adopted by the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory. This includes sample pretreatment, graphite production, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurement, associated stable isotope measurements, data handling, and age calculations, but with the main emphasis being on the chemical pretreatment methods. All of the above enable the laboratory to pro…
Should Archaeologists Care about 14 C Intercomparisons? Why? A Summary Report on Siri
Radiocarbon ( 14 C) dating is used widely in many projects as a basis for the creation and testing of chronological constructs. 14 C measurements are by their nature complex and the degree of sample pretreatment varies considerably depending on the material. Within the United Kingdom and Europe, there are a number of well-established laboratories and increasingly, archaeologists are not just commissioning new dates, but also using statistical mod…
Preliminary Results for Estimating the Bone Background Uncertainties at Suerc Using Statistical Analysis
Bone is frequently dated in archaeological studies and, especially for very old bones (more than 40,000 years old), it is critical to have an accurate and precise measure of the material-specific background value and its associated uncertainty. The SUERC Radiocarbon Laboratory has obtained a mammoth bone as a background bone standard and an appropriate number are now routinely prepared and measured in each AMS batch, resulting in the accumulation…
Investigation of the Analytical F 14 C Bone Background Value at Suerc
The SUERC Radiocarbon Laboratory employs a one-step “background subtraction” method when calculating 14 C ages. An interglacial wood (VIRI Sample K) is employed as the non-bone organic background standard, while a mammoth bone (LQH12) from Latton Quarry is used as the bone background standard. Results over several years demonstrate that the bone background is consistently around a factor of two higher and more variable than the wood background. A…
Learning from the Wood Samples in ICS, Tiri, Firi, Viri, and Siri
Each of the laboratory intercomparisons (from ICS onwards) has included wood samples, many of them dendrochronologically dated. In the early years, as a result of the majority of laboratories being radiometric, these samples were typically blocks of 20–40 rings, but more recently (SIRI), they have been single ring samples. The sample ages have spanned background through to modern. In some intercomparisons, we have examined different wood pretreat…
Preliminary Results From Glasgow International Radiocarbon Intercomparison
GIRI (Glasgow International Radiocarbon Intercomparison) was designed to meet a number of objectives, including to provide an independent assessment of the analytical quality of the laboratory/measurement and an opportunity for a laboratory to participate and improve (if needed). The principles in the design of GIRI were to provide the following: (a) a series of unrelated individual samples, spanning the dating age range, (b) linked samples to ea…
Routine Quality Assurance in the Suerc Radiocarbon Laboratory
The SUERC Radiocarbon Laboratory reports approximately 3000 unknown samples per year with an additional 1200 samples processed for quality assurance purposes. In addition to the primary OxII standard (SRM-4990C) required for AMS batch normalization, secondary “known-age” standards have been used over many years to evaluate individual batch quality. These have included wood (as prepared alpha-cellulose), barley mash, humic acid, a background mammo…
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (15 works) · Radiocarbon dating (15 works) · Archaeology (13 works) · Chemistry (13 works) · Geography (13 works) · Geology (10 works) · Isotope Analysis in Ecology (9 works) · Accelerator mass spectrometry (7 works) · Environmental Science (7 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (7 works)