Science-Based Dating in Archaeology

Genetic and archaeological perspectives on the initial modern human colonization of southern Asia

“…(3,21). These dates are close to the effective limits of radiocarbon dating, where only 1% of contamination by modern carbon would reduce the measured age of a sample from 50 ka to ∼37 ka (56). The dates for the Jwalapuram 9 sequence (Fig.…”

Radiocarbon Dating of Late Pleistocene Marine Shells from the Southern North Sea

“…Post-mortem development of inorganic intracrystalline carbonate cement within a shell structure is regarded a natural cause of introducing younger carbon (Mangerud 1972;Aitken 1990;Webb et al 2007;Douka et al 2010). In these studies, recrystallization is essentially described as an inorganic process (only) controlled by the concentrations of both free carbonate and Ca 2+ ions.…”

“…Contamination effects and the resulting apparent young ages have been described for marine shells (Mangerud 1972;Nadeau et al 2001). Carbonate diagenesis is generally regarded as the cause for incorporation of younger 14 C into the crystal structure (Mangerud 1972;Goslar and Pazdur 1985;Aitken 1990;Nadeau et al 2001;Magnani et al 2007;Webb et al 2007;Douka et al 2010;Price et al 2011). …”

Another beauty of analytical chemistry: chemical analysis of inorganic pigments of art and archaeological objects

“…In general, dating methods follow a scheme based on a measurable time-dependent quantity or parameter with a well-known value associate with a determined event, which is used as ''reference or starting point'' in a time-scale relatable to the Archaeology of interest. It is interesting to note that dating techniques have limitations in applicability related to the type of materials, age range and state of preservation of the object [9,10,41].…”

“…There are a small number of texts and reviews in the literature devoted to the principles of Chemistry and Physics of interest in the cultural heritage sector [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] and instrumental techniques applied to the analysis of cultural artefacts [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. In this context, this study presents the contents that, in the opinion of the authors, should be included in a course of Analytical Chemistry applied to Archaeometry 1 and Conservation Science 2 as specific subject aimed to the analysis of inorganic pigments and 1 This term is associated with the name of the Journal Archaeometry, set up in 1958 by the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art of the Oxford University.…”