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Abstract

In an article entitled "On the Carbon-14 Analyses of Mortar from the Newport Tower: Theoretical Considerations," published in a 1998 issue of Newport History, Professor Andre J. de Bethune comments on the carbon-14 dating of mortar from the Newport Tower undertaken by Scandinavian natural scientists and published by Johannes Hertz in Newport History one year earlier, in "Round Church or Windmill? New Light on the Newport Tower" and "Appendix: Carbon-14 dating of the Newport Tower."' The latter concluded: "A pre-Columbian date can almost certainly be excluded." Based on the same analyses, Professor de Bethune reaches the opposite conclusion: "A pre-Columbian origin for the Newport Tower cannot be excluded." The discrepancy is due to divergent weighting of the possible sources of contamination (with older or younger carbon) of the carbon absorbed from the atmosphere during the time of the tower's construction.

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