Archaeologica.org

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/co ... 15/3?rss=1

It took nearly 30 years and a lot of heated debate, but a team of researchers has finally produced what archaeologists, geologists, and other scientists have long been waiting for: a calibration curve that allows radiocarbon dating to achieve its full potential. The new curve, which now extends back 50,000 years, could help researchers work out key questions in human evolution, such as the effect of climate change on human adaptation and migrations.

Bad news for fundies though....

the raw radiocarbon dates for the spectacular paintings of horses, lions, bison, and other animals at Chauvet Cave in southern France, the oldest known cave art, come out at 32,000 years ago, right after a major cold spell hit Europe; but the new calibration curve makes the earliest paintings at Chauvet 36,500 years old, a period of relative warmth.

Apparently, the new system pushes the dates back even further into time.

So we need a whole list of re-calibrated dates between, say, 3,000 and 50,000 BP before we can re-interpret their meaning.

Lots of wiggle room in this one.

“To calibrate the period extending from the present to about 12,000 years ago, the team has used thousands of overlapping tree-ring segments from the Northern Hemisphere, which provide a very accurate check of raw radiocarbon dates and how much they must be corrected. But for dates older than the available tree-ring record, the researchers had to turn to several other, less-precise data sets on ancient CO2 levels”

That seems to mean it is good only for Northern Hemisphere stuff.
Who knows what was going on down south.

“plus some fancy statistical treatments”

That means you can bend it to your will.

“Although the new curve is a major landmark, it is "definitely not the last word" in radiocarbon calibration, Reimer says.”

So it is a work in progress.
This sounds like a career path for some.

I guess the good news is that RC is now realized as not being the “absolute proof” that it once was.
They are realizing that RC dating has to be cross verified.

The earth is more than 6,000 years old, kb.

I never said it wasn't.

You are mistaking me for someone else.

Just checking!