Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (7.1992/1995)

RADIOCARBON DATINGS
OF AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS
IN “TOOLS & TILLAGE” 1968-1995
REVISED CALIBRATIONS AND RECENT ADDITIONS

By
Grith Lerche

Since the first issue of Tools & Tillage in 1968
radiocarbon datings of ploughing implements
and other agricultural tools have been pub-
lished regularly in the journal.
Since 1985 no new dates have been pub-
lished separately. In the meantime new dat-
ings of interest to the Tools & Tillage readers
have, however, been made and several of the
datings relevant to the development of agri-
culture have been published in connection
with many recent articles in Tools & Tillage
and in publications from the Commission for
Research on the History of Agricultural Im-
plements and Field Structures (Brady 1990;
Carter 1993-94, 86-89; Lang 1993-94, 74;
Lerche 1994, 21, 297-302; Mikkelsen 1986,18;
Rimantiem 1993-94, 93; Shramko 1992;
Schou Jorgensen 1991; Tauber 1984, 25;
Troels-Smith 1984, 13-25; van der Sanden
1993-94, 104; Wang Xing-guang 1993-94,
116).
The Radiocarbon Method
The development of the C-14 dating method
and its correlation with other methods of dat-
ing, especially with dendrochronology, has
made it necessary to introduce calibrations
since C-14 years deviate from true calendar
years. The high precision calibration curves

have recently been extended considerably and
it is now necessary to bring the datings hith-
erto published in Tools & Tillage up to date.
This is done on the basis of the new calibra-
tion curves to revise earlier calibrated datings
especially in order to be able to make relevant
comparisons of important finds, old ones as
well as more recent ones. In 1993-94 profes-
sor Kaare Lund Rasmussen and Uffe Rahbek,
of the Copenhagen Radiocarbon Laboratory,
kindly made a revised calibration of all dat-
ings that have previously occurred in Tools &
Tillage, together with some selected recent
datings. This has been done in accordance
with the most recent calibration curves pub-
lished by M. Stuiver and Gordon W. Pearson
in Radiocarbon 1993, volume 35.1
Why Radiocarbon Dating?
The radiocarbon dates are always meant as a
useful guide independent of the normal rela-
tive cultural historical chronology, and espe-
cially when no other means for dating single
finds are at hand and their place in a chron-
ological or typological sequence is uncertain
(Lerche 1973, Lerche 1994, 21-23). It must,
however, always be remembered that the ra-
diocarbon date of a sample of an organic ma-
terial, for example a wooden artefact, is the