radiocarbon dating

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Easter Island Writing System Could Be a Rare Original
Easter Island's Ancient
Script May Be in Rare Club
NEW STUDY

Easter Island's Ancient Script May Be in Rare Club

Researchers suggest the writing system may have sprung up independently

(Newser) - There are few writing systems known that started completely from scratch, but researchers now believe a script known as "rongorongo" from Rapu Nui—also known as Easter Island—could be one of them. For some background, there are 400 known rongorongo glyphs, which have never been deciphered, according to...

There's New Hope for Believers in Holy Shroud
Dating of Turin Shroud to 
Middle Ages Was Flawed
NEW STUDY

Dating of Turin Shroud to Middle Ages Was Flawed

Study offers new hope for believers

(Newser) - Whether the Shroud of Turin served as Jesus' actual burial cloth has long been debated —and a new study, while not weighing in one way or the other, is likely to keep that debate raging. Researchers reanalyzed data compiled in 1988, when experts at the University of Arizona, Oxford...

There's a Good Chance Your Rare Scotch Is Fake

Be careful what you buy, especially if it's claimed as a single malt

(Newser) - A word of warning if you plan to celebrate the holidays by sipping on vintage Scotch whisky: There's a solid chance the stuff you have is fake. Advanced lab tests on 55 bottles of rare scotch nabbed from auctions, private collections, and retailers revealed 21 were outright fakes or...

Carbon Dating Legitimizes Remains of Real-Life Santa

St. Nicholas' pelvis may be in possession of Illinois pastor

(Newser) - Typically if you go around claiming to have a piece of Santa Claus' pelvis, you've earned yourself a psych evaluation. But it turns out a priest outside Chicago might actually have a case. The BBC reports scientists at the University of Oxford conducted the first-ever radiocarbon dating of a...

Thigh Bone Reveals Timing of Human-Neanderthal Sex

We were probably getting it on between 50K and 60K years ago

(Newser) - It's no surprise that modern humans and Neanderthals used to get it on —most people of Eurasian descent are, genetically, 1.6% to 2.1% Neanderthal. The question has long been when they did, with a wide estimate putting it between 37,000 and 86,000 years ago...

Neanderthals May Have Died Out 10K Years Earlier Than We Thought

Scientists used sophisticated radiocarbon dating to make the new estimation

(Newser) - Scholars have long wondered why Neanderthals disappeared—and exactly when. Recent estimates date their last days to 30,000 years ago, but a new take using sophisticated radiocarbon dating suggests their rapid decline actually happened between 40,000 and 45,000 years ago. Based on this timing, the findings also...

Ancient Egypt Sprang Up Faster Than We Thought

Carbon dating, computer models shorten estimate at least 300 years

(Newser) - Ancient Egypt wasn't built in a day, but it was built a heck of a lot faster than researchers thought. Based on radiocarbon dating and computer models, a team of researchers has concluded that Egypt's pre-dynastic agricultural period along the Nile began later than previously believed, in 3700...

New Clues Emerge on John the Baptist's Bones

Dating strengthens case that saint's bones have been found in Bulgaria

(Newser) - Scientists may have cracked the hunt for John the Baptist's bones. New radiocarbon dating is strengthening the case that the saint's bones were discovered at the site of an ancient Bulgarian church dedicated to him. Dating places the bones in the same First-Century period when John the Baptist...

Nuke Tests Left Mark on Trees, People

Scientists can date humans and trees by the extra carbon in their systems

(Newser) - Scientists can now carbon-date baby boomers by detecting atomic bomb residue in their DNA, NPR reports. Turns out that carbon-14 released during above-ground nuclear tests in the 1950s and '60s hung around, then was absorbed into living tissue, experts say. Evidence, in the form of extra carbon neutrons, has been...

Stonehenge Rocked as 'Neolithic Lourdes'

New research into 2300 BC stone circle indicates it was place of healing

(Newser) - Two archeologists have discovered evidence indicating that Stonehenge was a kind of "Neolithic Lourdes" pilgrimage destination where people came to be healed, the BBC reports. The researchers also used radiocarbon methods to date the mysterious stone circle in southern England to 2300 BC. Mineral analysis indicates the giant bluestone...

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