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Rowe's work published in book on chronometric analysis

Published Nov 30, 2009

Dr. Marvin Rowe, professor of chemistry, has an essay titled "Nondestructive radiocarbon dating: naturally mummified infant burial bundle from SW Texas" in a new book of collected papers, "Readings in Chronometric Analysis: Selections from American Antiquity and Latin American Antiquity, 1935-2006," published by the Society for American Archaeology Press.

In the introduction, editor Stephen E. Nash wrote, "In 2004, Karen L. Steelman, a former graduate student of Rowe, and colleagues published a short paper on the possibility of 'non-destructive' radiocarbon analysis using plasma oxidation of organic materials. If their methods and results can be replicated, this technique stands to revolutionize radiocarbon analysis in much the same way that AMS analysis did thirty years ago. As extensive museum and repository collections that have been off-limits because of the destructive nature of radiocarbon analysis, collections may now be directly dated with little or no impact on the integrity of the sample."