The interpretation of grave goods is always uncertain; we can observe what was included, but the meaning behind the inclusion belongs to the people who made the decision, and they left no written record.

Radiocarbon Dating And The Number That Stopped Everyone

The radiocarbon date from the Buhl burial was not available in 1989, when the discovery was made.

Radiocarbon dating of ancient bone requires careful preparation and analysis, and the sample from the Buhl burial was sent to the University of Zurich in Switzerland for accelerator mass spectrometry dating.

AMS dating — accelerator mass spectrometry — is more precise than earlier radiocarbon methods.

It requires only a small sample of material, and it measures carbon isotopes directly rather than relying on the decay products.