MARINE RESERVOIR EFFECT OF SPERMACETI, A WAX OBTAINED FROM THE HEAD OF THE SPERM WHALE: A FIRST ESTIMATION FROM MUSEUM SPECIMENS

Autor: Lucile Beck, Ingrid Caffy, Emmanuelle Delqué-Količ, Jean-Pascal Dumoulin, Stéphane Hain, Christophe Moreau, Marion Perron, Marc Sieudat, Bruno Thellier, Charlotte Van Hove
Přispěvatelé: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de mesure du carbone 14 (LMC14 - UMS 2572), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN)-Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (MCC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Radiocarbon
Radiocarbon, 2022, 64 (6), pp.1607-1616 (3rd Radiocarbon in the Environment Conference Gliwice, Poland, July 5-9, 2021 December 2022). ⟨10.1017/RDC.2022.79⟩
ISSN: 0033-8222
1945-5755
DOI: 10.1017/RDC.2022.79⟩
Popis: Spermaceti is a waxy substance found in the head cavities of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus and P. catodon). This substance had a variety of commercial applications from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century, such as candles, soap, cosmetics and other compounds. Spermaceti was also occasionally used as wax for modeling sculptures. In order to date such artworks the marine reservoir effect (MRE) has to be considered. The chemical library of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris, France) contains samples of spermaceti studied by the French chemist M. E. Chevreul (1786–1889) at the beginning of the 19th century. Eight samples of substances preserved in their original containers were 14C dated. According to the whaling practices and the publications of Chevreul, we estimated that the spermaceti samples came from whales caught between 1805 and 1815. AMS 14C dating results are from 550 to 1180 ± 30 BP, R values between 393 and 1023 (± 34) 14C yr and ΔR between –168 and 504 (± 60) 14C yr. The values presented here are the first ever obtained for spermaceti. However, being based on museum specimens, further measurements on crude material would be necessary to refine these results.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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