Some interesting applications of radiocarbon dating to art and archaeology

Radiocarbon dating is an important tool for the determination of the age of many samples and covers the time period of approximately the last 50,000 years. We can use radiocarbon dating to estimate the age of a wide variety of carbon-containing materials. Both organic or inorganic materials at the Earth's surface and in the oceans form in equilibrium with atmospheric carbon-14. This makes it an important tool for the understanding of processes during the time-scale of modern humans, from the last glacial-interglacial transition, to recent archaeological studies of art works. We present an overview of the technique, its advantages, assumptions and limitations. We also emphasize dating interesting objects. Radiocarbon has been applied to dating many historical artifacts and archaeological applications. Some specific examples including dating of famous artifacts of artistic, religious and scientific interest are discussed.