1. 'Run a carbon-black test on my jaw' | Catalogue of radiocarbon determinations
& dendrochronology dates | September 2013 Update
Originally posted online on 19 September 2013 at rmchapple.blogspot.com
(http://rmchapple.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/run-carbon-black-test-on-my-jaw.html)
Physics!
If you’ve ever met me, or spent any time around this blog, you’ll know that I’m pretty obsessed
with radiocarbon dates (and dendrochronological dates, too, but to a lesser extent). It’s only
in recent times that I learned that some people think that I’m a proper scientist and work
somewhere with a radiocarbon laboratory, actually producing these dates. Would that it were
so! Ernest Rutherford is often quoted as saying that ‘All science is either physics or stamp
collecting’. Those who work to produce the dates – that’s physics. What I do is definitely the
‘stamp collecting’ end of the market! I’ve told the story before, but the short version is that
when I worked in field archaeology I just started collecting radiocarbon dates for my own use
as a research tool. Even though I now work outside of archaeology, I still maintain the project
as I believe that it is ‘a good thing’.
At the last update to this Catalogue, in March 2012, there were 6093 radiocarbon
determinations and 240 dendrochronological dates. In the following year and a half, I’ve
increased the numbers to 7015 radiocarbon and 260 dendro dates. The dates currently in the
catalogue span the range from 20±40 BP, at Rath Hill I, Co. Meath (Beta-246963), right back
to 12480±130 BP, at Castlepook Cave, Co. Cork (OxA-3601). The 923 new dates added to the
resource cover 30 Irish counties (along with a couple from Scotland and the north of England),
and (if my math and failing eyesight are correct) 277 separate excavations.

2. Stamp Collecting ... know the difference!
The sources of the information come from wherever I can lay hands on them – some are older
publications that I’m just getting around to; some are new books that I add as and when I can
afford to buy them; and some – increasingly – are from PDF versions of papers and reports
that have been made available for free download from the internet. In the latter category, I
would like to pay tribute to so many archaeologists who have invested their time and energies
in uploading documents to such repositories as academia.edu etc. – your effort has increased
the quality and quantity of dates I’ve been able to add to this Catalogue. On top of this, I’ve
been delighted that a number of researchers have trusted me with their unpublished/largely
unavailable dates. Among these is Marion Dowd (Institute of Technology, Sligo), who supplied
dates from Moneen Cave, Co. Clare; CóilínO'Drisceoill (Kilkenny Archaeology) provided a
number of dates from his company’s excavations around Kilkenny; and Prof P. C. Woodman
(formerly of UCC) provided a substantial number of Mesolithic dates, many of which have not
been published. However, a special note of thanks must be reserved for the generosity
of Richard Warner (formerly of the Ulster Museum). He made his personal database of sites
available to me for this project. The depth and detail of his work far outclasses what I have
achieved in this much simpler format, and should be the template for future projects to collate
this kind of information. On top of the dates already collected by both of our projects – but
acting as means of error-checking – Warner’s research included a large number of
unpublished dates that have never been widely available before. These include a number of
museum pieces that were dated, along with a large collection of dates that I do not believe are
available elsewhere from the hillfort at Rathgall, Co. Wicklow. However, the jewel in the crown
of this collection must be – for me at any rate – the 26 dates from surface timbers recovered
from crannogs. All but four of these dates are from Fermanagh sites, and the dates range from
130±65 BP (1666-1954 cal AD, UB-2516) at Drumlone, to 1715±60 (135-525 cal AD, UB-2500)
at Mill Lough. Despite this one date in the Iron Age, there are only three dates from the Early
Christian/Early Medieval period, and the rest are of, broadly, Medieval to modern ages.
Although I cannot swear to it, my supposition is that these results – taken from surface
materials – wrongly informed opinion on the generally late date of the Fermanagh crannogs.
The recent excavations at Drumclay [also here & here] have shown that the more likely story

3. is that these sites have significant periods of occupation from Early Christian foundations right
through to Medieval times. Between them, these individuals have contributed 325 radiocarbon
dates not available elsewhere. Of these 220 come solely from the material collected by Richard
Warner.
Now that we have all this information, what can be done with it? My initial reason in collecting
this data was to examine contemporaneity between sites. In particular, I was looking for a way
of analysing burnt mounds that went beyond the simplistic ‘other sites in this county’ and
‘other sites that have rectangular/circular troughs’ etc. Not that there’s anything wrong with
these approaches, but I thought that if you could pick out the other burnt mounds across
Ireland that were dated to a similar narrow range, and then add in the contemporary burials,
houses, trackways etc., you might have something interesting. So … yes ... you can use it for
that type of analysis (and this will be the topic of a forthcoming blog post). But there are lots
of other things you can do with the data – much more ambitious than my approach. You can
read about some of them here. Whatever you want to do with the data, my aim is to provide as
much as I can so that other researchers don’t have to spend countless hours trawling the 656
books, papers, and reports listed in the bibliography. The format in which the data is presented
is another aspect that is quite important. It has been frequently suggested to me that I should
present the data as an Access database, or even an online searchable resource. I’ll admit that
both are attractive prospects, but I have found – by accident, and not design – that the majority
of researchers who use this resource are happiest when it is available as an Excel
spreadsheet. That way they can dump my graphs, rearrange the columns, and generally slice
it and dice it in any way they choose … even export it into their own custom-made databases
etc. In this way it is pretty much the most ‘vanilla’ of data formats that can be adapted into any
organisation or layout that best suits the needs of the individual researcher.
I suppose the next question is: where to from here? Despite the economic gloom, it appears
that there is no shortage of available reports and books etc. I’ve currently got 190Mb of PDFs
to sort through for dates … and those are just the ones I’ve had a look through and know that
there are dates to be found in. The Downloads folder on my hard drive has become some form
of academic holding pen for all the materials I’ve encountered around the internet. At a rough
count, it contains 93 PDFs, weighing in at just under 1Gb. On top of all that I’ve also got a
large, and largely unread, pile of physical books. I daren’t even begin the task of enumerating
them – it’s probably too depressing! At a rough guess, I’d imagine that if stacked up, they’d be
the best part of four … maybe five … feet tall. So, from that perspective, I’m sorted for the time
being! That said, I’m always looking for more – and that’s where you can help! If you’re
involved in archaeology in Ireland – in whatever capacity – and have access to
radiocarbon/dendro dates that are not in the Catalogue, I’d be incredibly thankful if you could
pass them this way. So that they can be properly cited, I’d prefer a copy the original
book/report that they were published in – either in digital or paper format. Failing that, if
they’re not published, even a list of the dates with as much meta data surrounding them as
possible would be appreciated, too.
If you are a user of the resource, I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a few moments
to drop me a line, giving me an outline of your research and how the Catalogue has been of use
to you. I still feel that it is rather brash and distasteful to ask for testimonials of this type, but
they may prove to be a necessity if this resource is to survive. In the competitive world of grant
applications – should anyone ever have money again! – positive stories about how this simple
resource has helped researchers is very necessary to demonstrate value for money and prove
that a small investment in this project will create tangible ripples of positive influence for
numerous students. Even if you’re not directly involved in archaeology, but you still want to
help, you can use the Amazon portal at the end of each post. For every purchase that is made
through it, I receive a small amount as commission. Admittedly, it’s not likely to make me rich,
but it may just help to purchase a book or two to add to the Catalogue.

4. One way or another, I hope to continue this research and maintain this resource – so long as
there are people out there who use it and believe it to be ‘a good thing’. It may just be ‘stamp
collecting’, but it’s a useful collection that is worth much more than the sum of its parts!
You can access the latest version of the Catalogue through the IR&DD webpage or go directly
to it on Google Docs. To download the document, just click on 'File' and 'Download'. If you
have any problems with it, just sent me a message via the comments on this blog & I'll email
you a copy.
Robert M Chapple
PS. I just realised that many readers won't get the title reference to REM's 'Hairshirt' from the
Green album as it was released in 1988 ... that's 25 years ago! Where did the last quarter-
century go?