History

During 1965-1998, radiocarbon dating in Lund was performed in a conventional laboratory at the Department of Quaternary Geology using two CO2 proportional counters for detection of 14C disintegrations. Dating limit for the equipment was ca 40000 years BP, and the precision for Holocene samples was ± 50 to 80 years. The dating capacity was ca 140 samples/year and around 4200 radiocarbon datings were made during the lifetime of the laboratory. The laboratory was definitely closed 3 March 1998. Sören Håkansson was head of the laboratory from the start to his retirement in 1987 and was succeeded by Göran Skog. Almost from the beginning and during more than 30 years Kerstin Lundahl was technical assistant in the laboratory.

Since the early 1990’s until 2004, the tandem accelerator at the Physics Department in Lund (3 UDH Pelletron) was used for multi-purpose Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. Development work was done in cooperation with the Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory. The first radiocarbon datings were made in April 1995, and around 1400 samples were dated from 1995 to 2004. Performance of the old AMS facility was as follows: precision: ± 80 14C-years, maximum datable age: 40000 BP, minimum sample weight: 2 mg of carbon. The tandem accelerator was closed in August 2005.