Determining when something died is not always a matter of looking at a date on a document. Bones surface in fields, forests, and construction sites without names attached to them. Mummies arrive at laboratories without provenance. Archaeological finds are pulled from the earth with no written record, no living witness, and no context that carries meaning without hard science behind it. When the question is age, and when that question carries legal, scientific, or historical weight, the only reliable path forward is radiocarbon dating carried out at a level that holds up under scrutiny.
The laboratory we work with holds ISO 17025 accreditation, the international standard that defines what analytical competence actually means in a scientific context. Accreditation under ISO 17025 is not a certificate you hang on a wall after filling out paperwork. It requires rigorous, ongoing demonstration that every method, every instrument, every technician, and every result meets a defined and auditable standard. When you submit a sample to an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory, you are not getting an estimate. You are getting a measurement produced under conditions that can be traced, verified, and defended in any court or academic institution in the world.
The instrumentation used in this laboratory places it in a category occupied by very few facilities globally. Dating is performed using a Single Stage Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (SSAMS) manufactured by NEC, the National Electrostatics Corporation of the United States, which remains the definitive standard for precision radiocarbon measurement. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry works by physically separating individual carbon isotopes based on their mass rather than waiting for radioactive decay events, which means it can analyze samples of a few milligrams rather than requiring grams of material, and it can detect ratios at a resolution that conventional decay counting cannot approach. Sample preparation for graphite targets is handled using Automated Graphitization Equipment AGE-3 by IonPlus AG, a Swiss engineering company that builds graphitization systems specifically for AMS laboratories. The AGE-3 automates what used to be a labor-intensive and error-prone conversion process, producing consistent, high-purity graphite targets while eliminating the batch-to-batch variability that manual preparation introduces.
How Radiocarbon Dating Works
Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon that forms continuously in the upper atmosphere when cosmic radiation strikes nitrogen atoms, converting them into a heavier, unstable form of carbon. This carbon-14 combines with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, which enters the atmosphere, gets absorbed by plants through photosynthesis, and moves through the food chain into every living organism on earth. As long as an organism is alive, its carbon-14 content remains in equilibrium with the atmosphere because it is constantly exchanging carbon through respiration, feeding, and metabolic processes. At the moment of death, that exchange stops. No new carbon enters the system. From that point forward, the carbon-14 already present in the tissue begins to decay at a fixed, well-established rate, with a half-life of approximately 5,730 years.
The measurement that radiocarbon dating produces is the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12, the stable and non-decaying isotope that makes up the overwhelming majority of all carbon in biological material. By comparing that ratio against a known reference standard and applying the established decay curve, the date of death can be calculated with a calibrated age range expressed as a probability distribution. The accuracy of the result depends on the condition of the sample, the amount of material available, the care taken during preparation, and the precision of the instrument. Using AMS under ISO 17025 conditions, reliable dates can be obtained on organic material up to approximately 50,000 years old, though the most precise results fall within the range that is most relevant for forensic and archaeological applications, meaning the last several thousand years.
Calibration is an essential step that turns a raw radiocarbon measurement into a calendar date. Because atmospheric carbon-14 has not remained perfectly constant throughout history, a calibration curve constructed from tree rings, coral records, and other independently dated archives is used to convert raw measurements into calendar year ranges. The current standard curves, IntCal23 for the Northern Hemisphere and its regional variants, are the product of decades of collaborative research across dozens of institutions and represent the most accurate calibration framework currently available.
What Can Be Dated
Radiocarbon dating requires organic material, meaning any sample that was once alive and that exchanged carbon dioxide with its surrounding environment during its lifetime. The range of suitable materials is broader than most clients initially assume.
Wood and plant-based materials rank among the most reliable sample types when they are well-preserved. Charcoal is exceptionally stable and can survive thousands of years in soil without significant contamination. Seeds, plant fibers, and food residues found on ceramics have all been dated successfully. Leather, fur, and worked bone objects found in archaeological contexts are routinely submitted for dating and produce excellent results when collagen is preserved.
Bone and teeth are the most common sample types submitted for forensic work involving human remains. Teeth, and specifically the dentine component, are the preferred material when working with skeletal finds because they are metabolically stable after formation, meaning they preserve the carbon signal from the period when the tooth was developing rather than averaging across the entire lifetime of the individual. Enamel is less useful for AMS dating because of its inorganic composition but serves other analytical purposes. Bone requires collagen extraction before dating, and the quality of that collagen is the primary factor determining whether a reliable date can be obtained. Well-preserved bone from cool, dry environments tends to yield excellent collagen yields. Bone from waterlogged, tropical, or highly acidic contexts may have degraded collagen, requiring additional quality screening before a date can be reported.
Shells and coral can also be dated, though they require a correction for the marine reservoir effect, which accounts for the fact that marine environments contain carbon with a different isotopic signature than the atmosphere. Cremated bone presents special challenges because high-temperature combustion drives off organic carbon, leaving behind only the inorganic mineral fraction, but it remains datable under specific conditions using carbonate analysis, though the uncertainty ranges are wider than for unburned material.
Materials that contain no organic carbon cannot be dated using radiocarbon methods. Metals, glass, ceramics without organic residues, and stone are outside the scope of this technique entirely.
Forensic Work Involving Human Remains
The forensic application of radiocarbon dating sits at the intersection of two demands that do not always coexist easily: the scientific need for precision and the legal need for defensible conclusions. When a skull is found and the question is whether this is an ancient burial, a twentieth-century death, or a recent homicide, the answer determines how law enforcement responds, how much investigative resource is allocated, and whether a criminal investigation opens or closes.
This is not a generic laboratory service. The work performed here is conducted with a direct understanding of what the results will be used for and who will ultimately read them. Having spent years examining human remains in forensic, archaeological, and anthropological contexts, I approach each submission with an awareness of what the sample represents beyond its chemical composition. Teeth are the preferred sample material for skulls and for skeletal assemblages where preservation quality varies across different elements, because teeth consistently provide the most reliable and least contaminated carbon signal. When good teeth are available, they are the first choice. When they are not, long cortical bone is the next best option, with particular attention to the diaphyseal region, which tends to preserve collagen better than cancellous bone.
For cases that fall within the last several decades, a specialized application of radiocarbon dating exploits the atmospheric pulse of carbon-14 that resulted from above-ground nuclear weapons testing during the 1950s and 1960s. That testing roughly doubled the concentration of atmospheric carbon-14, after which concentrations have been declining steadily as the excess carbon is absorbed by the oceans and the biosphere. This so-called bomb curve creates a signature in tissue that formed during or after that period, allowing a trained analyst to determine not just whether remains are modern but often to narrow the date of death to within a few years. For forensic investigators dealing with unidentified remains, this is one of the most powerful tools available for establishing whether a case falls within the statute of limitations or belongs to an era before reliable identification databases existed.
Sample Requirements
Successful dating depends on submitting sufficient material in good condition. The table below gives the recommended and minimum masses for the most common sample types submitted to this laboratory.
| Material | Preferred Mass | Minimum Mass |
|---|---|---|
| Bone | >2 g | 600 mg |
| Charcoal | >20 mg | 10 mg |
| Collagen (extracted) | 5 mg | — |
| Cremated Bone | 4–5 g | 2 g |
| Food Crust | >20 mg | 10 mg |
| Leather | >50 mg | 30 mg |
| Shells, Corals, CaCO₃ | 40 mg | 20 mg |
| Tooth | 1–2 teeth | 1 tooth |
| Wood | >50 mg | 30 mg |
Samples should be submitted in clean, sealed containers, ideally glass or polyethylene, with no adhesives, consolidants, or organic preservatives applied unless previously discussed. If a sample has been treated with any substance at any point, that information must accompany the submission because certain preservatives introduce modern carbon that can shift a date by centuries or more. When in doubt about sample condition, contact me before submitting. A short conversation at the outset saves time and prevents wasted material.
Stable Isotope Analysis
Radiocarbon dating answers the question of when. Stable isotope analysis answers different but equally important questions: where did this person come from, what did they eat, and what kind of environment did they live in. These two techniques are highly complementary and are frequently ordered together when a thorough characterization of skeletal remains is needed.
Stable isotope analysis measures the ratios of non-radioactive isotope pairs in biological tissue. The two most analytically useful for forensic and archaeological applications are the carbon isotope ratio expressed as delta-13C and the nitrogen isotope ratio expressed as delta-15N.
Delta-13C analysis reflects dietary composition because different photosynthetic pathways produce tissues with distinct carbon isotope signatures. C3 plants, which include wheat, rice, rye, and most European wild vegetation, have a different isotopic value than C4 plants, which include maize, sugarcane, and millet. A population that subsisted primarily on C3 grains will show a measurably different carbon isotope signature in their bone collagen than one that incorporated significant C4 crops. This distinction is directly readable in skeletal remains and provides a window into agricultural practice, trade routes, and cultural contact that documentary sources may not record.
Delta-15N analysis reflects trophic level, which is a technical way of describing how high up the food chain an individual was eating. Nitrogen isotope values increase predictably as you move from plants to herbivores to carnivores, and they also reflect the protein content of the diet more broadly. Higher nitrogen values in human bone collagen indicate a diet richer in animal protein. Lower values indicate a predominantly plant-based diet. The distinction between high-status and low-status burials in historical populations is often visible in nitrogen isotope data even when grave goods and burial context have degraded beyond recognition. For forensic applications involving unidentified modern remains, isotope values can help narrow geographic origin when combined with regional dietary baseline data.
When delta-13C and delta-15N are analyzed together with strontium and oxygen isotope ratios from tooth enamel, which can be added to any submission on request, a far more detailed picture of an individual's origin and life history emerges. Strontium values in early-forming teeth reflect the geology of the region where a person grew up, while oxygen values reflect the isotopic composition of the water they drank during childhood. This multi-isotope approach has become the standard method for mobility and migration studies in both archaeology and forensic anthropology, and it is capable of distinguishing individuals who grew up in different geographical regions even when DNA is absent or too degraded to sequence.
Quality Standards and Reporting
All work conducted through this laboratory is performed in strict compliance with ENFSI guidelines and with the ISO 17025 accreditation framework that governs every stage of the analytical process from sample reception through final reporting. Expert reports are structured for use before judicial and investigative authorities and are written to meet the evidentiary standards applied in international legal proceedings. Where radiocarbon dating results are used in support of a broader forensic assessment involving skeletal analysis, age estimation, or identification, the dating data is integrated into the overall expert opinion rather than delivered as a standalone technical document with no interpretive context.
Pricing and Turnaround
Radiocarbon dating is priced at 499 EUR per sample, inclusive of all laboratory fees and VAT. Stable isotope analysis for delta-13C and delta-15N is available as an add-on for 59 EUR per sample. Standard turnaround is approximately four weeks from the date the sample is received in confirmed good condition. Rush processing may be available for urgent forensic cases. Contact me directly to discuss timelines for time-sensitive matters.
Submitting a Sample or Requesting a Consultation
If you have skeletal material, archaeological finds, or forensic evidence that requires precise age determination, write to me before submitting anything. A brief description of the material, its context, its condition, and the question you need answered allows me to advise on sample selection, preparation requirements, and which combination of analyses will produce the most useful result for your specific purpose. The goal is not to run a test. The goal is to answer your question with the highest possible scientific rigor and to produce a result that stands up wherever it needs to stand up.