碳十四测年技术前沿:新一代校正曲线IntCal20发布

碳十四目前已经成为考古领域应用最为广泛的科技测年手段,但是任何碳十四数据转化为实际日历年份都离不开校正曲线。2020年,最新碳十四校正曲线正式发布,再一次引起了各个学科的广泛关注与讨论。对于考古学界而言,最关心的问题莫过于新发布的碳十四校正曲线是否会对已有年代序列造成影响。本文通过定性定量等方法细致对比了北半球新旧两条校正曲线(IntCal20和IntCal13),发现二者主要的区别存在于30000 BP之前和11000-10000 BP这两个大的时间范围内,而对于碳十四数据相对集中的中国新石器和青铜时代之年代框架影响甚微。

Undoubtedly, radiocarbon dating has become one of the most important approaches to reconstructing archaeological chronologies across the globe. However, any uncalibrated radiocarbon measurements, which are often expressed in "radiocarbon years BP"(before present, 1950 AD), have to be calibrated against the internationally agreed calibration curve in order to provide the authentic calendar years. In 2020, updated radiocarbon calibration curves have been released and have triggered wide discussion in various disciplines. The most pressing issue for archaeologists is whether the new calibration curve causes changes to the previous chronological interpretation. If so, to what extent do archaeologists need to modify their existing chronologies to accommodate these changes? Here,we provide a series of qualitative and quantitative comparisons between the new and old calibration curves(Int Cal20 versus Int Cal13). In conclusion, despite the major differences observed for the periods of before 30000 BP and 11000-10000 BP, there appears no other significant changes between the two curves. This suggests that the current chronology for Neolithic and Bronze Age China remains robust in the light of the new calibration curve Int Cal20.