A radiocarbon spike at 14 300 cal yr BP in subfossil trees provides the impulse response function of the global carbon cycle during the Late Glacial.

We present new C results measured on subfossil Scots Pines recovered in the eroded banks of the Drouzet watercourse in the Southern French Alps. About 400 new C ages have been analysed on 15 trees sampled at annual resolution. The resulting ΔC record exhibits an abrupt spike occurring in a single year at 14 300-14 299 cal yr BP and a century-long event between 14 and 13.

Mortar radiocarbon dating: preliminary accuracy evaluation of a novel methodology.

Mortars represent a class of building and art materials that are widespread at archeological sites from the Neolithic period on. After about 50 years of experimentation, the possibility to evaluate their absolute chronology by means of radiocarbon ((14)C) remains still uncertain. With the use of a simplified mortar production process in the laboratory environment, this study shows the overall feasibility of a novel physical pretreatment for the isolation of the atmospheric (14)CO(2) (i.