Radiocarbon dating

One of the most important questions in archaeology is figuring out how old something is, but how do archaeologists do this? For that, they use something called "dating methods", and as the name suggests, there are several! Radiocarbon dating is one of the most commonly used by archaeologists. Although the name might sound complicated, we'll explain it here as simple as possible.

Every living thing on Earth — humans, animals, and even plants — has a tiny, invisible element called carbon-14 inside them. It's in everyone's body because we get it from eating food and breathing air. But when an animal or person dies, they stop eating and breathing, which means they no longer take in any carbon-14. Over time, the carbon-14 in their body slowly starts to decrease.

So how does this help archaeologists figure out how old something is? Well, archaeologists know how fast carbon-14 decreases, so they can count how much of it is left in the bones of an animal or person. By comparing the amount that is left to how fast carbon-14 disappears, they can estimate how long ago that person or animal died.

However, there are some small challenges. Measuring carbon-14 can be tricky because it doesn't always decrease at the same rate every year. This means the dates might not always be exact. Fortunately, archaeologists have a solution! They compare the carbon-14 results with tree rings (another scientific method!) that can tell us how much carbon-14 decreases every year by measuring the different rings, helping to make the dating more accurate!

Another challenge is that radiocarbon dating can only be used on people, animals and plants (so wood also), because they have carbon-14 in their bodies. For pots, stones and other material, archaeologists have to use other ways to know how old they are.