Pretreatment Protocols Performed at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (Rich) Prior to Ams ¹⁴c Measurements

The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (RICH) radiocarbon ( 14 C) laboratory in Brussels, Belgium, has acquired experience for pretreating samples with 60 years of involvement in 14 C dating, and the implementation of routine protocols. These procedures as applied to wood, seeds, charred materials, bones, ivory, textiles (silk, wool, cotton, linen), paper, shells, cremated bones, mortars, lead carbonates, sediments, etc. are described in detail in this paper. They are evaluated against reference materials.