ANTH 9 Lecture Notes - Lecture 31: Absolute Dating, Human Events, Radiocarbon Dating
31 Aug 2020
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Document Summary
History and basic concepts of obsidian hydration dating. Absolute dating orders human events and allows the study of cultural change. Radiocarbon dating is one reliable method for dating archaeological contexts. Expensive and therefore restricted in use: difficult to establish ranges of site occupation. Poor calibration after ad 1600 leads to poor temporal resolution. Less expensive and more samples can be processed to establish site occupational ranges. May be applied to dating archaeological sites in the 19th century. Low measurement error allows better cultural chronologies. A full quantitative understanding of the glass hydration process. Predicting rates of glass hydration based upon chemical composition. Glass hydration: water is present on the surface, molecular water diffuses into the glass structure, there is no counter diffusion of na, k, or ca. Water enters the glass, disrupts the silicate network, increases in concentration with time. This also increases the rate of water diffusion.
