The Dangoor Research Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory aims to time cultural, environmental, and material changes in human history, using radioactive elements of carbon.
Established in 2012 by the Exilarch Foundation, the laboratory works on finding new methods for radiocarbon dating of materials, in order to track early modern human societies. The center of the lab is the Accelerator Mass Spectrometer system (AMS).
The measurement of radiocarbon concentration in archaeological materials helps to get a better understanding of important events and also to identify the cause-effect relationships for the appearance of cultural changes throughout human history. Thus, findings from excavation sites are taken to the laboratory, where they are examined with advanced chemical techniques and carbon-dating (using accelerator mass spectrometer) to determine their age.
Head of laboratory
Prof. Elisabetta Boaretto
Prof. Elisabetta Boaretto is a nuclear physicist educated in Italy and Israel, that participates in worldwide excavations that involve 14C dating.
Prof. Boaretto received the 2010 National Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievements and is a Knight of the Italian Republic. In 2011, she was elected a fellow of the European Physical Society (Nuclear Physics Division) and received the IBA Europhysics Prize for Applied Nuclear Science and Nuclear Methods in Medicine.