Can carbon dating tell the difference between an object from on century and one from a century earlier?

Question

Say you have a pyramid built in 1500 BC, will carbon dating be able to tell if another pyramid was built in 1600 BC?

Answer 1

The half life of carbon 14 is 5770 years, it can only be used to date organic material.

Answer 2

no, because the carbon dating will tell you the age of the material, and the rocks used were both millions of years old

Answer 3

Is is possible to date any organic material to appoximately plus or minus 16 years at that age.

So it is possible to determine which century if adequate care is taken in sample collection.

Keep in mind that this will give you the age of the organic material, which may not be the same as the age of the pyramid.

Answer 4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/archaeology...

Answer 5

Unfortunately, carbon dating methods are completely inaccurate and anyone who uses them uses them with a preknowledge of when they expect the object they have to fit into either the geologic or historic timescale.  Carbon dating makes certain assumptions that cause it to be in error almost at every point.  

The essential concept is that the ratio of Carbon 14 which is an isotope of carbon 12 on the planet is a constant.  It says that as the amount of the two in relation to each other should vary and that varience should tell you something about when that object was formed.  Scientist know within confident bounds the half life of the carbon 14 isotope and can measure its presence in the object.  Contrasting that number with what they assume was the total amount at the objects formation they can arrive at an estimated date of formation and or death in some cases.  However, this relies on a lot of assumptions, including variables in decay rates based on outside influences, the total starting amount of c14 and c12, etc and etc.

So, unfortunately, trying to date two pyramids so close in age would be impossible for radiocarbon dating methods and anyone who says otherwise is making a quess, assuming they know anything about carbon dating or is lying.

Answer 6

Maybe.  It depends on what the object is made of. Unless the artifact contains something which was living and acquiring atmospheric  carbon at it's demise you cannot get a "carbon date".

If I were buried with my Regency linen press and investigated in 100 years, the boffins would find 2 different carbon dates. I would have a carbon date of 100 years and the press over 250 years.

Answer 7

Carbon Isotopes have a half life of 5370 years I think.. which means you can only date things that are like 10600 years old. The things you date have to be of plant origin, because its living things that absorb the carbon to work with. If your talking rocks only, which I presume with pyramids.. you cant carbon date. But you can find the dates by using isotopes of a mineral.. I forget which one, it could be like uranium or something? They have a huge half life. Scientists are using this dating system to measure the life of rocks found on the moon and they are the same age as the oldest rocks on earth. if you want to know more about carbon dating and want more then laymans words let me know...

I dont know about the pyramids off the top of my head, but telling something from which century it came from, is when carbon dating is used. Its fairly accurate because from the moment the plant dyes it stops absorbing carbon so the carbon levels only decline from this point as a certain rate each year which is determined by "half lifes". You can determine something down to the year, eg 100 years ago or even 10,007 years ago. but anything more and the carbon will probibly have all gone.