New framework contract between the Tandem Laboratory and the University of Oslo
After sometimes extensive chemical preparation, graphitised samples are loaded into our MICADAS accelerator, where the ratio of the two carbon isotopes carbon-14 and carbon-12 is measured.
The Tandem Laboratory has signed a framework contract with the University of Oslo as supplier for radiocarbon dating services. The contract runs from January 2025 for two years and can be extended to three or four years.
Radiocarbon dating is a technique that allows for determining the age of a sample by measuring the remaining fraction of the isotope carbon-14, which starts decreasing through radioactive decay when a human, animal or plant dies. At the Tandem Laboratory we are using accelerator mass spectrometry to measure the carbon-14 fraction, which is especially sensitive and only requires very small amounts of sample material. Radiocarbon dating is an important method within archaeology, and the contract includes the dating of archaeological samples from the Museum of Cultural History and the Department of Archaeology at the University of Oslo.
A similar framework contract between the same partners ran from 2021 to 2023. During this period the Tandem Laboratory received about 800 samples annually for radiocarbon dating, thus, making relevant contributions to numerous projects within archaeological and cultural heritage research. We are expecting similar numbers for the current contract.
Svenja Lohmann