This interdisciplinary project will enhance birth/death age estimates based on radiocarbon-dated bones. Radiocarbon (C-14) is often used to date archaeological/forensic human bones. The amount of radiocarbon that remains present in a bone informs us of the length of time passed since it had been biologically active. In this project, bones of individuals with known life histories (birth/death year, diet, biological sex) will be radiocarbon-dated to quantify radiocarbon lags in different bones and people. Novel Bayesian methods will be developed to model how carbon accumulates and gets recycled within bones, taking into account their biological sex, age, diet and lifestyle. A person’s birth year y and lifetime l will be estimated (if not already known) by modelling for each year how much new carbon (with C-14 concentration Ftb, depending on diet) is added to different bones b. By modelling these accumulations, abl, together with resorption rates rbl, expected Ftb values can be compared to measured C-14 ages.
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