Radiocarbon dating bone samples recovered from gravel sites

The Radiocarbon dating bone samples recovered from gravel sites is an Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund project as rebursed by English Heritage. The project was undertaken by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit. Radiocarbon pre-treatment chemistry is costly and time-consuming and so it is often not feasible to attempt to date bones, especially in large numbers, from gravel sites or others known for poor bone preservation. However, sites which predominantly yield bone which contain insufficient surviving collagen to date (ie <1% of the pristine amount) do include a small fraction of bones in which collagen is better retained.