Answer
Our new calculations would conclude that the organic matter is older than previously determined.
Work Step by Step
We suppose that new evidence shows that the Earth’s cosmic ray bombardment several thousand years ago was a lot stronger than previously thought. If this were true, there would have been a much larger fraction of carbon-14 in the atmosphere back then. Ancient animals and plants that died several thousand years ago would initially contain a larger fraction of carbon-14 than modern organisms do.
If we weren’t aware of this difference, the larger fraction of C-14 remaining today would lead us to the incorrect conclusion that the organisms were relatively young, since so much C-14 was still present, and not much of it had decayed.
With the new evidence, our new calculations would conclude that the organic matter is older than previously determined by carbon-dating.
