| Archaeological Dating Methods, Sites, Artifacts, Projects |
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Archaeological Dating Methods - Archaeological Vacations - Archaeological Volunteering
Aberystwyth Luminescence Laboratory __ "Luminescence dating is a Quaternary dating method used to determine the age of a sample. The method was initially developed in the 1960's for dating pottery. However, since 1979 the method has also been applied to dating geological sediments, and this is the application that has been worked upon most extensively in the Aberystwyth luminescence laboratory. The method can produce ages from as low as 30-50 years, up to almost a million years." You will find a good overview, publications, research projects, people, conferences and links. - From Aberystwyth Luminescence Laboratory - http://www.aber.ac.uk/~qecwww/luminescence/open.htm
ADVANCE-10K project __ They cover it: "This project is focused in the area of dendroclimatology. The absolute dating control and seasonal growth of long tree-ring chronologies will be used to reconstruct a range of climate variables in different regions of northern Eurasia to enhance our knowledge of natural climate variability on a range of timescales within the last 10,000 years and advance our understanding of the mechanisms and forcings that have generated this variability." - From University of East Anglia - http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/adv10k/
Aegean Dendrochronology Project Homepage, Professor Peter Ian Kuniholm, director, Cornell University __ A fascinating introduction to this method of dating. "Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating has been available as an archaeometric technique for most of this century. Simply stated, trees in temperate zones grow one ring per calendrical year. For the entire period of a tree's life, a year-by-year record or ring pattern is formed that in some way reflects the climatic conditions in which the tree grew. These patterns can be compared and matched ring for ring with trees growing in the same geographical zone and under similar climatic conditions. Following these tree-ring patterns--the sum of which we refer to as chronologies--from living trees back through time, we can thus compare wood from old or ancient structures to our known chronologies, match the ring patterns (a technique we call cross-dating), and determine precisely the age of the wood used by the ancient builder." - From Cornell University - http://www.arts.cornell.edu/dendro/
Archaeological Palynology __ Learn about using using palynology as an archaeological tool. "Archaeological Palynology has developed somewhat independently in different nations during the mid- twentieth century, so terminologies and emphases vary." You will find an overview plus links and bibliographical information. - http://www.geo.arizona.edu/palynology/arch_pal.html
Archaeomagnetism __ "This web site was developed to provide the North
American archaeological community with a comprehensive guide to archaeomagnetism.
In addition to a brief overview of the history and principles of the technique,
this site provides information and links to archaeomagnetic facilities in the
U.S. and abroad,..." You will find an overview of the technique, how used and
links to related information. - From Stacey Lengyel -
http://www.u.arizona.edu/%7Eslengyel/
Association for Tree-Ring Research __ "The scope of the Association of Tree-Ring
Research is rather diverse. It is in particular aimed at research groups and
individual scientists of Europe working without a detailed knowledge of what is
going on in the many different corners of Europe, but also of course, for
everybody interested in this field. We, thus, hope to create a vivid platform
for all of you." You will find a lot of good generalized information as well as
links to databases and more. - From Association for Tree Ring Research -
http://www.tree-ring.org/
Dating the Evidence __ Brief summaries of various archaeological dating techniques. - From Annenberg/CPB - http://www.learner.org/exhibits/collapse/chacocanyon_sub.html
Dating the Past __ Chapter 4 of Kevin Greene's Archaeology: an introduction with references to many techniques. - From University of Newcastle upon Tyne - http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/kevin.greene/wintro/chap4.htm#2
Dendrochronology __ "Simply put, dendrochronology is the dating of past events (climatic changes) through study of tree ring growth." For the not so simply put but very interesting rest of the story, this is a good place. - From Ancient Bristlecone Pine - http://www.sonic.net/bristlecone/dendro.html
Euro-dendro welcome page __ Database of European dendrochronology. Fully searchable. - From Dr Tom Levanic - http://www.dendro.bf.uni-lj.si/first.html
INSTAAR Dendrochronology Laboratory __ Learn about the laboratory, its
research projects and how they can be applied to archaeological dating. -
illustrated - From University of Colorado at Boulder. -
http://instaar.colorado.edu/dendrolab/
Obsidian Hydration Dating __ Learn how obsidian hydration dating works and its
application to archaeology. - From University of California -
http://id-archserve.ucsb.edu/Anth3/Courseware/Chronology/10_Obsidian_Hydration.html
The OCR Carbon Dating Home Page __ "The OCR Carbon Dating procedure is an experimental approach that measures site-specific rates of biodegredation of organic carbon, either as soil humic material or as charcoal (Frink 1992, 1994). The analysis models the dynamic and nonlinear aerobic soil system, and the relative reactivity of the soil's organic carbon within that system." You will fond papers, an overview, list of publications, jopurnals and more. - From OCR Carbon Dating, Inc. - http://members.aol.com/dsfrink/ocr/ocrpage.htm
Potassium-Argon Dating __ "Potassium-Argon Dating Potassium-Argon dating is the only viable technique for dating very old archaeological materials. Geologists have used this method to date rocks as much as 4 billion years old." You will find an overview and application. - From University of California - http://id-archserve.ucsb.edu/Anth3/Courseware/Chronology/09_Potassium_Argon_Dating.html
Radiocarbon Dating of the Shroud of Turin __ "Very small samples from the Shroud of Turin have been dated by accelerator mass spectrometry in laboratories at Arizona, Oxford and Zurich. As Controls, three samples whose ages had been determined independently were also dated. The results provide conclusive evidence that the linen of the Shroud of Turin is mediaeval." - http://www.shroud.com/nature.htm
Radiocarbon Home Page __ "Radiocarbon is the main international journal of record for research articles and date lists relevant to 14C and other radioisotopes and techniques used in archaeological, geophysical, oceanographic, and related dating. It is published 3 times a year. We also publish conference proceedings and monographs on topics related to our fields of interest." You may subscribe or read online. - From Radiocarbon Journal - http://www.radiocarbon.org/
Radiocarbon WEB-info __ Excellent all-purpose website about radiocarbon, its application, uses, age calculation, information for kids and more. "Radiocarbon dating is the technique upon which chronologies of the late Pleistocene and Holocene have been built. This resource is designed to provide online information concerning the radiocarbon dating method. We hope it will be of occasional use to radiocarbon users and interested students alike." - From Tom Higham, Radiocarbon Laboratory, University of Waikato - http://www.c14dating.com/index.html
Rock Art Dating and Conservation __ Summary of a scientific paper illustrating recent developments in rock art dating. - From James Q. Jacobs - http://www.jqjacobs.net/rock_art/ra_conserve.html
Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research Home Page __ "Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research is a nonprofit research organization founded in 1997 by Peter M Brown. We provide expertise in tree-ring collection, dating, and analysis to answer a variety of basic and applied questions in fire and forest history, paleoclimatology, and forest ecology and management." You will find several articles and reports. - From Rocky Mountain Tree-ring Research - http://www.rmtrr.org/
Stratigraphy __ Brief overview with a movie. - illustrated - From University of California - http://id-archserve.ucsb.edu/Anth3/Courseware/Chronology/04_Stratigraphy.html
Timing is Everything - Archaeology __ A series of excellent essays about archaeological dating and the various techniques used. - From About.com - http://archaeology.about.com/bltiming.htm
Tree-Ring Society Home Page __ "The Tree-Ring Society is an international scientific association dedicated to tree-ring research and education." Learn about their programs, goals, educational materials, membership requirements and journal. - From Tree-Ring Society - http://www.treeringsociety.org/index.html
The ULTIMATE tree-ring pages __ Well, the opening paragraph of the website makes a fine review. "Welcome and thank you for visiting the Ultimate Tree-Ring web pages, designed to be the ULTIMATE source for information on the science of Dendrochronology. I've designed these pages to be easily understood by people at all levels of education, from elementary school students to high school students, from first grade teachers to college professors. You won't find anything fancy here - I want these pages to be readable, enjoyable, and (most of all) educational. - illustrated - From Dr. Henri D. Grissino-Mayer - http://web.utk.edu/%7Egrissino/
USGS -- Scientific Capabilities - Paleomagnetism Analyses __ You will find a good overview and information about equipment and technique plus more. "Paleomagnetism, defined as the ancient magnetism preserved in rocks, soil, and ceramics, is useful for age- determinations and for measuring deformation. As a dating tool, paleomagnetism is frequently applied to sedimentary sections where magnetic-polarity stratigraphy can be correlated with the geomagnetic polarity time scale." - From USGS - http://geology.cr.usgs.gov/capabilities/paleom.html
WDC for Paleoclimatology - Tree-ring Data Search __ Online database covering
tree ring research around the world. You may search by country, investigator,
species and more. - From National Geophysical Data Center -
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/ftp-treering.html
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