Radiocarbon dating pins date for construction of Uyghur complex to the year 777

Description

Dating archaeological objects precisely is difficult, even when using techniques such as radiocarbon dating. Using a recently developed method, based on the presence of sudden spikes in carbon-14 concentration, scientists at the University of Groningen, together with Russian colleagues, have pinned the date for the construction of an eighth-century complex in southern Siberia to a specific year. This allows archaeologists to finally understand the purpose for building the complex – and why it was never used. The results were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 8 June.