AN ASSESSMENT OF THE RADIOCARBON DATING OF THE DEAD-SEA-SCROLLS

I suggest, on the basis of a statistical analysis, that recently deter mined ''conventional radiocarbon ages'' of Dead Sea Scroll documents a re offset systematically by about +40 yr, leading to a similar overest imate of the ages of these documents. Much closer agreement with paleo graphic and specific dates is obtained when a correction of this magni tude is made to the ''conventional C-14'' values. This indicates that C-14 dates may convey more precise information about the ages of these documents than initially recognized.