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Direct Radiocarbon Dating of Pottery: Selective Heat Treatment to Retrieve Smoke-Derived Carbon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Emmanuelle Delqué Količ*
Affiliation:
Centre de Datation par le Radiocarbone, Université Claude Bernard–Lyon I 43, Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France
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Abstract

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I attempted to separate smoke-derived carbon from carbon derived from clay by variable-temperature burning. First, using liquid scintillation counting (LSC) and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), I dated experimental potsherds containing these two sources of carbon. I used the same techniques to date archaeological samples. The results on archaeological sherds confirm the difficulty of establishing a standard procedure for pottery dating. Nevertheless, reliable dates on smoke-blackened potsherds are potentially obtainable with AMS dating of thin lamellas in the sherd surface following adequate NaOH treatment.

Type
II. 14C in Archaeology
Copyright
Copyright © the Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona 

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