Age Determination of Fossil Shell Samples from Southern Shores of Iran Using Radiocarbon Dating

In this study, the method of radiocarbon dating was applied to determine the age of fossil shell samples, obtained from southern shores of Iran. The radiocarbon (14C) dating method has been applied in many fields, including oceanography, geology, and archaeology. In this method the sample is pretreated in physical and chemical procedures, then using a Benzene Synthesis System, benzene (C6H6) is synthesized from the sample. One gram of the synthesized benzene is added into a teflon counting vial containing 12ml scintillator Hisafe3. In order to count and determine the radioactivity concentration of beta particles emitted from radiocarbon, the liquid scintillation counting method is applied. The age determination of fossil samples has been carried out by using count per minute (cpm) values from beta counting of 14C in synthesized samples comparing to the obtained results from Oxalic Acid Modern Standard. For 8 shell samples studied, the determined ages are in the range of 210-3890 years, according to Before Present (BP; before 1950). The efficiency of Liquid Scintillation Counting system for 14C is calculated to be about 92% and the calculation error for the low age samples was ±40 years and for the high age samples was ±100 years, respectively.