In a message dated 96-07-12 04:51:12 EDT, you write:
 
<< Over the past decade there has been a burgeoning in the publication of
 C14 dates for the Southern Levant for the cultural periods known as
 Chalcolithic and EB.  It seems to me that there is some kind of serious
 problem with too many of the dates to be explained by mere human errors. >>
 
One cause of error could be fossil carbon contamination . Fossil carbon is
free from C14, having been disintegrated long ago. When a test sample is
contaminated with fossil carbon, it shifts its carbon ratio in favor of the
non-C14 isotopes, producing in a reading that suggests a longer C14 decay and
thereby results in an earlier date given to the sample.
 
Now, the trick is to suggest how the EB material got contaminated, and not
sound like I am a nut case. Could there have been a petroleum fire in the
area during the EB period, which carried airborne oil particulate mater (very
old, no C-14) that in turn fell on every living thing? Any other guesses?
 
Mike Friends