Parchment sought for radiocarbon dating study

I work in the radiocarbon (C14) dating lab at Oxford University, and
am looking at methods of radiocarbon dating parchment, focusing on
identifying the most suitable pretreatment methods to give the most
accurate and precise results possible without unnecessary
destruction of the sample.

So far, I have worked on 6 known-age historical parchments from the
UK.  The results are promising, and were published in Radiocarbon
last year (I can provide a PDF if anyone is interested and doesn't
have online access to the journal).

However, I have some funding remaining and would really like to work
on 1 or 2 more pieces.  I am looking for suitable material as
follows:

    Of a known calendar age, pre-1650 AD

    From Europe (ideally the UK)

    In any state of preservation

    15-40mg material available, more if possible

I appreciate the difficulties involved in sampling parchments for
such destructive analysis.  Several of the pieces I have worked on
so far have been fragments which have become separated from intact
parchments in collections (as long as it is certain which parchment
the fragments came from).  If you think you may have anything
suitable, I can provide more information about exactly what I need,
or how suitable a particular sample would be.

I would be really grateful to hear from anyone who may have suitable
material they could let me have.

Dr Fiona Brock
Radiocarbon Laboratory Chemist
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art
University of Oxford, UK


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 28:15
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