ANTH 003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Radiocarbon Dating, Moe Williams, Encase
29 Oct 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Stockpiling, remodeling, reuse old wood, well-intentioned conservation efforts (national park service) . Trimming of bark to expose the wood (casas grandes) Only useful one is the cutting date . Pottery type of production tied to calendar by association with tree-ring dates. Look at type proportions, assess likely dates. At rattlesnakes point (sw) within 5 years of tree-ring. Proportion of radioactive isotopes with known processes of production and rates. Only a few isotopes have optimal rates for archaeologists [14c, 40k, 235u, Radioactive isotopes have a characteristic half-life , which is the time period in which half of the amount of a radioactive isotope originally present will decay. C-14 reverts back to n when decaying. Ratio in plant and animal relatively same to environment. Dating organic matter at top sedimentary layer. Why isn"t a radiocarbon date a calendar date? (calibration) A typical date of 1000+/- 50 bp. And an error range, for example +/-50. The best known dating method (widely available)
