Radiocarbon (14C) ages cannot provide absolutely dated chronologies for archaeological or paleoenvironmental studies directly but must be converted to calendar age equivalents using a calibration curve compensating for fluctuations in atmospheric 14C concentration. Although calibration curves are constructed from independently dated archives, they invariably require revision as new data become available and our understanding of the Earth system improves. In this volume the international 14C calibration curves for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, as well as for the ocean surface layer, have been updated to include a wealth of new data and extended to 55,000 cal BP. Based on tree rings, IntCal20 now extends as a fully atmospheric record to ca. 13,900 cal BP. For the older part of the timescale, IntCal20 comprises statistically integrated evidence from floating tree-ring chronologies, lacustrine and marine sediments, speleothems, and corals. We utilized improved evaluation of the timescales and location variable 14C offsets from the atmosphere (reservoir age, dead carbon fraction) for each dataset. New statistical methods have refined the structure of the calibration curves while maintaining a robust treatment of uncertainties in the 14C ages, the calendar ages and other corrections. The inclusion of modeled marine reservoir ages derived from a three-dimensional ocean circulation model has allowed us to apply more appropriate reservoir corrections to the marine 14C data rather than the previous use of constant regional offsets from the atmosphere. Here we provide an overview of the new and revised datasets and the associated methods used for the construction of the IntCal20 curve and explore potential regional offsets for tree-ring data. We discuss the main differences with respect to the previous calibration curve, IntCal13, and some of the implications for archaeology and geosciences ranging from the recent past to the time of the extinction of the Neanderthals.

The color properties of aging wood samples from historical buildings have been compared with those of recent wood samples that were heat treated at temperatures ranging from 90°C to 180°C. The results of kinetic analysis obtained by the time-temperature superposition method showed that the color change during natural aging was mainly due to a slow and mild oxidation process. In other words, heat treatment could accelerate the changes in wood color that occur during aging. In one sample, the color change (ΔE* ab ) after 921 years at ambient temperature was almost equivalent to that of heating (artificial aging) approximately for 6.7 h at 180°C. The results have been interpreted that the aging and the subsequent change in wood color begin at the time of tree harvesting.

Annual rings record the intensity of cosmic rays (CRs) that had entered into the Earth's atmosphere. Several rapid 14 C increases in the past, such as the 775 CE and 994CE 14 C spikes, have been reported to originate from extreme solar proton events (SPEs). Another rapid 14 C increase, also known as the ca. 660 BCE event in German oak tree rings as well as increases of 10 Be and 36 Cl in ice cores, was presumed similar to the 775 CE event; however, as the 14 C increase of approximately 10‰ in 660 BCE had taken a rather longer rise time of 3-4 years as compared to that of the 775 CE event, the occurrence could not be simply associated to an extreme SPE. In this study, to elucidate the rapid increase in 14 C concentrations in tree rings around 660 BCE, we have precisely measured the 14 C concentrations of earlywoods and latewoods inside the annual rings of Japanese cedar for the period 669-633 BCE. Based on the feature of 14 C production rate calculated from the fine measured profile of the 14 C concentrations, we found that the 14 C rapid increase occurred within 665-663.5 BCE, and that duration of 14 C production describing the event is distributed from one month to 41 months. The possibility of occurrence of consecutive SPEs over up to three years is offered.www.nature.com/scientificreports www.nature.com/scientificreports/ respectively, calculated at every latitude taking account of a geomagnetic cut off rigidity 35 from their fluence spectra and the altitude production yields. The production rate of SPE56 was consistent with the value 2.90 × 10 6 [atoms/cm 2 ] by Kovaltsov et al. 23 . Based on our calculation, the ~660 BCE event is 52-53 times larger than SPE56, and 230-240 times larger than SPE72 if the energy spectrum of the ~660 BCE event is comparable to the SPEs.

Wood is present in many cultural heritage objects in Japan thanks to its capacity to resist over long period of time. However, the evolution of its properties in regular use remains insufficiently known. The present study on the effect of wood aging takes advantage of the Japanese context where building traditions have been maintained for centuries. 3-point bending tests were performed in longitudinal (L) and radial (R) directions on small clear wood specimens cut from 8 historical samples and one modern reference considered of high quality by craftsmen. Although aged wood appeared more rigid and stronger than recent wood, after density and humidity corrections were applied no significant variation of L and R rigidity or L strength was observed. The post-linear behaviour, however, was drastically influenced by wood age especially in R direction where the strength and rupture energy decreased markedly with the time elapsed since the wood was processed. Well-preserved aged wood can be considered as safe as long as it is not loaded perpendicular to grain.