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Lime Mortar and Plaster: A Radiocarbon Dating Tool for Dating Nabatean Structures in Petra, Jordan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Khaled Al-Bashaireh  and
Gregory W Hodgins
Khaled Al-Bashaireh*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Yarmouk University, Postal code 211–63, Irbid, Jordan
Gregory W Hodgins
Affiliation:
NSF Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, Physics Building, 1118 East Fourth Street, PO Box 210081, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721–0081, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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This research aims at radiocarbon dating 2 structures of archaeological interest from Petra, south Jordan, using lime plaster and mortar. Initially, the samples' content of calcareous contamination was examined by petrography and cathodoluminescence. In order to date clean lime binders, the samples were gently crushed and 63–45 μm powders were collected by dry sieving, then the CO2 gases, collected by a hydrochloric acid hydrolysis of the powders, were dated. The interpreted 14C dates clarify the chronology of the studied structures, show an agreement with the archaeological and historical data, and may indicate the efficiency of the cleaning and hydrolysis procedures.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 54 , Issue 3-4 , 2012 , pp. 905 - 914
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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