14C RECORD AND WIGGLE-MATCH PLACEMENT FOR THE ANATOLIAN (GORDION AREA) JUNIPER TREE-RING CHRONOLOGY ∼1729 TO 751 CAL BC, AND TYPICAL AEGEAN/ANATOLIAN (GROWING SEASON RELATED) REGIONAL 14C OFFSET ASSESSMENT

The East Mediterranean Radiocarbon (inter-)Comparison Project (EMRCP) has measured the C-14 ages of a number of sets of tree rings from the Gordion Area dendrochronology from central Anatolia at the Heidelberg Radiocarbon Laboratory. In several cases, multiple measurements were made over a period from the 1980s to 2009. This paper presents the final data set from this work (128 high-precision measurements), and considers (i) the relationship of these data against the standard Northern Hemisphere C-14 calibration data set (IntCal09), and (ii) the optimum calendar dating of this floating tree-ring record on the basis of the final set of high-precision C-14 data. It finds good agreement between the Anatolian data and IntCal09 in some important intervals (e.g. similar to 1729 to 1350 cal BC) and observes one period (9th-8th centuries BC) where there appears to be some indication of a regional/growing season signal, and another period (later 14th-13th centuries BC) where IntCal09 may not best reflect the real C-14 record. The scale of the typical growing-season-related regional C-14 offset (Delta R) between the Aegean/Anatolian region and IntCal09 is also assessed (for the mid-2nd millennium BC and mid-2nd millennium AD), and found to be usually minor (at times where there are no major additional forcing factors and/or issues with the IntCal09 data set): of the order of 2-4 +/- 2-4 yr.