Fossil Faeces provide America’s oldest human DNA

Carbon dates from dried excrement recovered from Oregon’s Paisley Caves show that humans were living on the American continent some 14,300 years ago, according to a paper published in the 3 April 2008 issue of Science magazine. Archaeologists have long debated whether the Clovis people – named after Clovis, New Mexico, where the characteristic stone spears and tools that define the culture were first recognised – were the first inhabitants of the Americas. Professor Eske Willerslev, of the University of Copenhagen, one of the authors of the Science paper, says the Oregon cave finds predate the oldest radiocarbon dates for Clovis culture by 1,300 years.

Japanese time capsule extends radiocarbon dating 40,000 years

Archaeologists will be able to determine the age of ancient objects much more precisely, following a breakthrough in radiocarbon dating using sediments from Lake Suigetsu in Japan.

Radiocarbon, or C-14, is a naturally occurring, radioactive isotope of carbon that is continuously produced in the upper atmosphere and becomes incorporated into all living organisms. Once the organisms die the isotope decays at a known rate, and archaeologists can use this to calculate the age of something by comparing how much radiocarbon remains in it.