Radiocarbon BP Re: The meaning of "B.C.E."?

[Geoff Read]

Alex McClay wrote:
> Actually BP is mostly used in the context of C14 dating, and "present" is
> defined as being 1950 (see http://www.answers.com/topic/radiocarbon-dating. So
> 5000 BCE = 6950 BP.

There is correspondence in Nature, 7 April 2005 p697 titled "Don't mix
radiocarbon and calendar years". I gather radiocarbon BP years differ from
calendar BP and that the  difference may be considerable (1000s of years in
the case in the letter). Probably this is not realised by most of us when we
see archaeological dates in the news media without the qualifications and
context of the scientist's full reports.

--
  Geoff Read <g.read at niwa.co.nz>
  http://www.annelida.net/