Radiocarbon Dating of the Historic Derby Boab Tree From Derby, Kimberley, Australia: In memoriam Assoc. Prof. Marius Sălăjan, PhD (1952-2004)

Adrian PATRUT; Laszlo RAKOSY; Karl F. REDEN, von

doi:10.24193/subbchem.2024.4.10

Radiocarbon Dating of the Historic Derby Boab Tree From Derby, Kimberley, Australia

In memoriam Assoc. Prof. Marius Sălăjan, PhD (1952-2004)

Authors

Adrian PATRUT Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Babeş-Bolyai University; Raluca Ripan Institute for Research in Chemistry, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Corresponding author: apatrut@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9862-6735
Laszlo RAKOSY Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Email: laszlo.rakosy@ubbcluj.ro https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7793-6996
Karl F. REDEN, von Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, NOSAMS Facility, Woods Hole, USA. Email: kvonreden@whoi.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6413-9018

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbchem.2024.4.10

Keywords:

AMS radiocarbon dating, Adansonia gregorii, dendrochronology, Australia, age determination, false cavity

Abstract

The paper presents the AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) radiocarbon dating investigation of the historic Derby Boab Tree from Derby, Kimberley, Australia. This well-known boab (Adansonia gregorii) is frequently considered a prison tree, where Aboriginal prisoners were temporarily incarcerated in its cavity. According to recent research, the Derby Boab Tree was not used as a prison tree. The boab has a closed ring-shaped structure, with 3 perfectly fused stems enclosing a false cavity. A number of six punctiform wood samples, of the size of a grain of sand, were collected from the cavity door wall. The radiocarbon date of the oldest dated punctiform sample was 1285 ± 21 BP, a value which corresponds to a calibrated age of 1185 ± 20 calendar years. This result indicates that the age of the Derby Boab Tree is 1250 ± 50 years. This is the first accurate dating result of a boab and demonstrates that the species is a millennial angiosperm.

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STUDIA UBB CHEMIA, Volume 69 (LXIX), No. 4, December 2024

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Published

2024-12-18

How to Cite

PATRUT, A., RAKOSY, L., & REDEN, von, K. F. (2024). Radiocarbon Dating of the Historic Derby Boab Tree From Derby, Kimberley, Australia: In memoriam Assoc. Prof. Marius Sălăjan, PhD (1952-2004). Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Chemia, 69(4), 145–157. https://doi.org/10.24193/subbchem.2024.4.10