Mainz 2026 – scientific programme

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MS: Fachverband Massenspektrometrie

MS 7: Accelerator Mass Spectrometry

MS 7.4: Talk

Thursday, March 5, 2026, 15:30–15:45, N 6

¹⁴CO₂ Pine Tree Ring Measurement at CologneAMS — •Martina Gwozdz¹, Thorsten Westphal², Susanne Lindauer³, Stefan Heinze¹, Markus Schiffer², and Dennis Mücher¹ — ¹University of Cologne, Institute for Nuclear Physics, Cologne, Germany — ²University of Cologne, Department of Prehistoric Archaeology, Laboratory of Isotope Archaeology — ³Curt-Engelhorn-Centre Archaeometry, Mannheim, Germany

An assemblage of pine trees was recovered in February 2021 in Paderborn, Schloss Neuhaus. Preliminary radiocarbon-dating of a pine cone places the age to the Late Paleolithic or Allerød Interstadial, approximately 11 400 - 10 700 BC. Attempts to correlate the ring-width series with established Late Glacial pine chronologies from Switzerland (Zürich, Winterthur), Central Poland (Koźmin), and the Netherlands (Leusden-Den Treek) have yielded no successful alignment so far. We measured the radiocarbon age of the tree rings at CologneAMS with CO₂ samples and at CEZA Mannheim with graphitization samples. The resulting calibrated age range of 11 400 - 10 800 cal BC confirms the Late Glacial context of the assemblage. These parallel measurements provided an opportunity for us to compare the performance of the CologneAMS small-sample CO₂ setup with the established graphitization procedure, while simultaneously expanding the dendrochronological archive for Late Glacial pine material.

Keywords: EA; IRMS; Gas Injection System; Dendrochronology; AMS