ARKY 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Experimental Archaeology, Uranium-238, Ethnoarchaeology

• School: University of Calgary
• Department: Archaeology
• Course: ARKY 201
• Professor: Elizabeth Paris

Document Summary

Measures the decay of uranium isotopes found in calcium carbonate deposits. Uranium (235u and 238u) decays into other isotopes (such as 230th, thorium) Works on : limestone bedrock, cave deposits (stalagmites, flow stone, finds between 50,000 and 1 million years olds, 10) fission-track dating. Measures the number of uranium fission tracks in a sample (narrow trails of damage) Works on: volcanic rocks (obsidian basalt, finds between 100,000 and 20 million years old. Allows to throw dart almost twice as far as you would bare-handed.