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Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: Dating Charred Plant Remains Extracted from Daub (With Reference to the 14C Chronology of the Epi-Lengyel Culture in Upper Silesia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2017

Tomasz J Chmielewski*
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of Gdańsk, ul. Bielańska 5, 80-851 Gdańsk, Poland
Agata Sady
Affiliation:
Bioarchaeological Unit, Silesian Museum, ul. T.Dobrowolskiego 1, 40-205 Katowice, Poland
Tomasz Goslar
Affiliation:
Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University, ul. Umultowska 85, 61-614 Poznań, Poland Poznań Radiocarbon Laboratory, Foundation of the A. Mickiewicz University, ul. Rubież 46, 61-612 Poznań, Poland
Mirosław Furmanek
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Wrocław, ul. Szewska 48, 50-139 Wrocław, Poland
Jiři Juchelka
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology of Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Unit Opava, Nádražní okruh 33, 746 01 Opava, Czech Republic
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].

Abstract

Despite their great potential, charred particles of chaff-and-straw temper from daub architecture have very rarely been considered as material suitable for 14C dating. This short paper is intended to change this situation. With this aim in mind, we first present the rationale and objectives of the sampling procedure based on archaeobotanical exploration of prehistoric remains of daub architecture, and then report and discuss the results of a short chronometric exercise based on such samples. The empirical verification of the sampling procedure was based on finds related to the epi-Lengyel culture from Upper Silesia.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2017 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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