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Radiocarbon dating of the Church of St. Margaret of Antioch in Kopčany (Slovakia): International consortium results

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2024

Pavel P Povinec Open the ORCID record for Pavel P Povinec [Opens in a new window] ,
Ivan Kontuľ ,
Alexander Cherkinsky Open the ORCID record for Alexander Cherkinsky [Opens in a new window] ,
Irka Hajdas Open the ORCID record for Irka Hajdas [Opens in a new window] ,
Yao Gu ,
A J Timothy Jull ,
Tomáš Lupták ,
Mihály Molnár Open the ORCID record for Mihály Molnár [Opens in a new window] ,
Peter Steier Open the ORCID record for Peter Steier [Opens in a new window]  and
Ivo Svetlik Open the ORCID record for Ivo Svetlik [Opens in a new window]
Pavel P Povinec*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
Ivan Kontuľ
Affiliation:
Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
Alexander Cherkinsky
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Irka Hajdas
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Yao Gu
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Laboratory of AMS Dating and the Environment, School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
A J Timothy Jull
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA INTERACT Centre, Institute for Nuclear Research, Debrecen, Hungary
Tomáš Lupták
Affiliation:
Restauro, s.r.o., Bratislava, Slovakia
Mihály Molnár
Affiliation:
INTERACT Centre, Institute for Nuclear Research, Debrecen, Hungary
Peter Steier
Affiliation:
VERA Laboratory, Isotope Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Ivo Svetlik
Affiliation:
Nuclear Physics Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
*
Corresponding author: Pavel P Povinec; Email: pavel.povinec@uniba.sk
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Abstract

An international consortium of radiocarbon laboratories has established the origin of the Church of St. Margaret of Antioch in Kopčany (Slovakia), because its age was not well known from previous investigations. In total, 13 samples of charcoal, wood, mortar, and plaster were analyzed. The 14C results obtained from the different laboratories, as well as between the different sample types, were in good agreement. Resulting the final 14C calibrated age of the Church, based on dating a single piece of a wooden levelling rod is 774–884 AD (95.4% confidence level), which is in very good agreement with Bayesian modeling result based on dating of wood, charcoal and mortar samples (788–884 AD, 95.4% confidence level). The probability distribution from OxCal calibration shows that 79% of the probability distribution lies in the period before 863 AD, implying that the Church could have been constructed before the arrival of Constantine (St. Cyril) and St. Methodius to Great Moravia. If we take as the terminus post quem the documented date of consecration of the church in Nitrava (828 AD), the Bayesian modeling suggests the age of the Church in the range of 837–884 AD (95.4% confidence level). Although the 14C results have very good precision, the specific plateau shape of the calibration curve in this period caused a wide range of the calibrated age. The Church represents, together with the St. George’s Rotunda in Nitrianska Blatnica, probably the oldest standing purpose-built Christian church in the eastern part of Central Europe.

Keywords

accelerator mass spectrometrycharcoalKopčanymortarplasterradiocarbon datingSt. Margaret Church of Antiochwood
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , February 2025 , pp. 135 - 154
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of University of Arizona

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