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Constraining the age of the Côa valley (Portugal) engravings with radiocarbon dating

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Ronald I. Dorn
Ronald I. Dorn*
Affiliation:
Geography Department, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ 85287-0104, USA
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Extract

Radiocarbon ages for the Côa petroglyphs are very similar to those obtained by Watchman (1995). Fundamental problems in the use of radiocarbon dating at Côa include evidence for the addition of younger carbon in an open system, and evidence of contamination from older sources of carbon. Radiocarbon measurements, therefore, cannot be used to decide whether the engravcings are or are not of Palaeolithic age.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 71 , Issue 271 , March 1997 , pp. 105 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1997

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