Is Carbon Dating Reliable?  by Helen Fryman  Question: What
about radiocarbon dating? Is it accurate?   (1.) C14 dating is
very accurate for wood used up to about 4,000 years ago.  This
is only because it is well calibrated with objects of known age.
Example: wood found in a grave of known age by historically
reliable documents is the standard for that time for the C14
content. This standard content of C14 can then be used for wood
not associated with a historically documented date. Dates up to
this point in history are well documented for C14 calibration.
For object over 4,000 years old the method becomes very
unreliable for the following reason:  Objects older then 4,000
years run into a problem in that there are few if any known
artifacts to be used as the standard. Libby, the discoverer of
the C14 dating method, was very disappointed with this problem.
He understood that archaeological artifacts were readily
available. After all, this what the archeologist guessed in
their published books.  Some believe