Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0125592906 ISBN 13: 9780125592901

Publisher: Academic Press, 1988

Although the technique of radiocarbon dating has been established and used as a research tool in a variety of fields since the late 1940s, no serious effort has been made to compile a comprehensive annotated bibliography of the literature devoted to radiocarbon dating and its applications. This is partly due to the multi-disciplinary aspect of the topic causing indexing of radiocarbon dating literature to be scattered in a variety of abstracting services and scientific fields and also partly due to the rapid and constant growth of the literature. This makes searching for literature on the general topic of radiocarbon dating a very cumbersome task.
Radiocarbon dating appears as an indexed subject only since 1965, however current literature shows that early works are still widely referred to, indicating their importance as foundation and framework for new research. Thus the selected range of the bibliography, 1947-1968, fills the gap not covered by indexing services or computer information retrieval. This bibliography lists over 2800 articles (in the English language), and the bibliography is divided into 14 chapters. Within the chapters, the entries are in alphabetical order by title. The bibliography also has three indexes which offer access to material by author, subject, and geographical names.

Review:

As one who appreciates heavy-duty reconnaissance, I can report that I am very impressed by this nearly-3000-entry summary of the first score years of 14C dating. I can also save you time by recommending that you or your research library acquire this book forthwith.
--Bruce Rippeteau in RADIOCARBON
What is even more mind-boggling than the 2800 entries, practically all of which Polach has read and succinctly summarized, is that these are only the English language publications. She does qualify this in her Preface, however, by saying that most non-English papers are eventually translated into English. Be that as it may, her achievement is monumental.
--ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCES BULLETIN
Even a scholarly and devoted mole can miss important things in a literature search, as well as being frustrated by the process itself. An intelligently annotated bibliography is a boon in any field, and in this instance Mrs. Polach has given us a book which is both comprehensive, as to the literature to 1968 and excellently annotated.
--Prof. John Chappell, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY