Dating in Archaeology: Where Getting Older Is More Desirable

Unlike historians, archaeologists rely on more than just the written record, and in a number of cases, there are no
written records. Archaeologists use a wide range of evidence to reconstruct our past and give more context to our
history.

• CONTEXT IS IMPORTANT

There are three terms to keep in mind when an archaeologist talks about context. These terms
are:

1. Matrix: the material that surrounds an archaeological site like sediments, gravel and sand. The
stuff that surrounds the artifact and features.

2. Provenience: The location an artifact is found in an excavation, within the grid of an

archaeology site. Every archaeology site is laid out on a grid, and units are excavated within the
grid. When artifacts are found in situ (in the location of original deposit with known provenience
and context), it means the artifact is in the place it was deposited years ago, the exact location of
deposit. Thanks to technology the archaeologist can use GPS in order to establish the
provenience for an artifact, structure and feature. The context can help date the layers of the
soil, providing a date for the occupation of the site and the function and meaning of the artifact.

Provenience is different from Provenance. You will hear both these terms used in archaeology as
well as in history and the art world. Sometimes they are used interchangeably. But they really
mean two different things. Provenance is either the place of origin or earliest known history of
something or the the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. This
is different from provenience, which is looking at an artifact’s or feature’s or structure’s position in
situ.

3. Association: Artifacts and anything else at an archaeological site found near one another in the
same context. This can include such things as fossils and other organic materials that may help us
to date the level being investigated and establish a chronology for an archaeological site. It could
be the surrounding landscape or the alignment of structures toward the horizon; therefore, the
horizon or stars, etc.
Without the provenience and association, it is difficult to say
anything about an artifact. The artifact loses it value in
archaeology if these things are not well established.

• One may identify what an artifact is and potentially even

what timeframe it may come from, but without context you
can not say much beyond that.

However, finding things in their original context (primary

context) is difficult and rare. The primary context is where
people left the artifacts and features. An example would be (Top) Tarxien Temple, Malta. (Bottom) Copán Mayan Ruins, Honduras.
Pompeii in Italy, Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, or Joya de Cerén in El
Salvador. In the case of Pompeii and Joya de Cerén a volcano
erupted covering everything in ash, “freezing” everything in
place. In the case of Göbekli Tepe, the site was intentionally
covered by the people who built these megalithic structures
and remained covered until their discovery by archaeologists in
the 1990’s. In both Pompeii and Joya de Cerén, entire
households were preserved, frozen in time. Göbekli Tepe is a
ritual complex.
Preservation is a big issue in archaeology.

Several factors influence the level of preservation an artifact

or feature experiences.

For example, control of microbial activity at a site. Oxygen Top Photos: Ötzi
and temperature plays a huge role. Oxygen and temperature
reduction helps to preserve artifacts. Dry environments Bottom Photo:
make for good preservation. There are a lot of factors. the mummy of
Ramses II
Ötzi, also called the Iceman, is the well-preserved natural
mummy of a man who lived between 3400 and 3100 BCE
discovered in the Ötztal Alps, the border between Italy and
Austria. He was frozen in place until he was discovered in
1991.

Due to freezing temperatures, Ötzi was able to stay

preserved. Because of his excellent preservation, things like
tattoos and the recently eaten meat before his demise,
wheat and plums and plants found in his colon, clothing, an
arrowhead lodged into his shoulder, and hunting equipment
were well preserved.
Dating methods fall into four basic
categories (Figure 3.1): (a) radioisotopic
methods, which are based on the rate of
atomic disintegration in a sample or its
surrounding environment; (b)
paleomagnetic (correlation)
methods,1 which rely on past reversals of
the Earth’s magnetic field and their effects
on a sample; (c) organic and inorganic
chemical methods, which are based on
time-dependent chemical changes in the
sample or chemical characteristics of a
sample; and (d) biological methods, which
are based on the growth of an organism to
date the substrate on which it is found.
Depending on the time period of interest,
different dating methods will be more
suitable than others (Figure 3.2).

- 14.30 An Introduction to Dating

Techniques: A Guide for Geomorphologists
DATING THE FOSSILS (Paleoanthropology and Archaeology)

There are four primary dating technologies for dating early hominids: radiogenic isotopes,
paleomagnetism, thermoluminescence, and electron spin resonance.
It is important to keep chronology in order. If you are not looking in the right
chronological period, then you may not find the evidence you are looking for to
support your position or even a historical account.
Time can either be relative or absolute. Geologically speaking,
Relative time is the physical subdivision of the rocks found in
the Earth's geology and the time and order of events they
represent. Absolute time is the measurement taken from the
same rocks to determine the amount of time that has expired.
Applied to archaeology, Relative dating does not offer specific
dates. It simply allows a determination if one artifact,
fossil, or stratigraphic layer is older than
another. Absolute dating methods provide more specific
dates and time ranges, such as an age range in years or exact
date (more or less).

• An important concept within this discussion of time is

stratigraphy.

Basically, stratigraphy is the sequence of events in the

archaeological record. Stratigraphy can help establish the
relative dates at an archaeological site and the artifacts found
in each of the strata (layers) at a location. This is achieved by
the Law of Superposition and the Law of Association
When archaeologists excavate at any particular site, they pay close
attention to the stratigraphy of the location as they dig.

• Stratigraphy is an idea borrowed from the geological sciences.

• Defined as the process by which layers of soil and debris are

laid down on top of one another over time (“process of
stratification”).

• These layers are not just the result of geological processes but
also human activity such as found when there is evidence for
extractive events, (when things are taken away by humans such
as clearing land for building activities, which artificially change,
alter or affect the natural deposition of things in that
stratigraphic layer), or additive events, (stuff building up over
time or artifacts added to the layer by human activity), such as
evidence of building activity or the use of the land based on the
remains of cultural materials associated with construction
including but not limited to foundations, walls, etc.
• The Law of Superposition states that
dirt is deposited down in layers that
build up sequentially.

• The Law of Association states that

artifacts and the features and other
materials found at the same layer
with little to no soil separation are
related especially in terms of
belonging to the same time period
or sequence.

It is important to note that there can be

incursions found within various
stratigraphic layers. An incursion is
basically when lower strata are invaded
by material belonging to an upper layer
or that causes a depression within the
lower strata.

Bottomline: The stratigraphy of an

archaeological site helps us to establish
Relative dating by providing a
sequential order of when things
happened. This is also known as
seriation.
Steno’s Law of Superposition—Basis of Relative Dating

§ Nicolaus Steno (1638–1686)

§ Law of superposition (He deduced that the higher rocks—the rocks
closer to the surface—were geologically younger than the lower, or
deeper, rocks. )
§ Relative dating
§ Stratigraphic correlation (The chemical composition of sediments
can be compared across large areas, allowing scientists to make
what are called stratigraphic correlations between rocks in different
areas of the world.)
Relative Dating Methods: Stratigraphy
§ Relative dating only reveals sequence or order of lives of organisms in
relation to each other.
§ We can only tell if things are older, younger, or the same age.

Relative dating methods provide us with a sequence of events, not a specific time. By using stratigraphy,
we can tell that things in higher layers are younger than those in deeper layers—but we need to watch
for geologic events that can change the position of strata (i.e, earthquakes), and for activity that can
disturb a layer (i.e., bioturbation or human activity)
Seriation is also a type of relative
dating technique that compares
assemblages of cultural materials
or artifacts from numerous sites
belonging to the same culture in
order to establish a chronological
order of things. For example,
ceramic assemblages could
compare different features of
pottery such as shapes, sizes,
surface texture and finishes,
decorative motifs, firing
processes, etc. in order to group
similarly situated ceramic wares
together in order of their
development thereby creating a
sort of cultural evolutionary map
that can be used to generally
describe the chronological
changes for a particular society or
culture. This can also be called
typology, and in archaeology,
typology is the result of the
classification of things according
to their physical characteristics.
Relative Dating Methods: Geological Events
§ Geological events that leave a
strong “signature” spread out over
larger distances.
• Can be used to link strata found in
different places.
• Every volcanic eruption has a unique
chemical signature.
Relative Dating Methods: Chemical Dating
Fluorine dating
The relative age of fossil bones can also be
determined by the amount of fluorine they
contain. Buried bones absorb the elements in the
surrounding soil. Bones that have been buried
for a long time absorb more fluorine than bones
that are more recently buried. This idea is
illustrated in the figure to the right. Notice that
the deeper, presumably older bones, contain a
higher concentration of fluorine.

A dating method that measures the amount of

fluorine, nitrogen, and uranium in bones. Older
bones have more fluorine and uranium and less
nitrogen. But because decomposition happens at
different speeds in different places, it's not
possible to compare bones from different sites.
Skeletal Fragments – a mandible (lower jaw) with two molars intact,
several pieces of skull, a canine, and a few other fragments – were
“discovered” in 1912 by an amateur archaeologist, Charles Dawson,
at a gravel pit in Piltdown, England, and had been described and
named by a distinguished anthropologist, Arthur Smith Woodward,
in 1913 as early ancestral species. Additional fragments were found
by Dawson in 1915. This species commonly became known as
Piltdown man. The fragments painted a problematic picture. This
newly discovered species had an apelike jaw but a large braincase,
unlike Java man, which had a small brain but a more human-like. The
relationship between Piltdown man and Java man seemed
complicated to draw, but one was made, nonetheless.

In the 1940s, Kenneth P. Oakley, anthropologists, working in the

anthropological lab at the British Museum (Natural History), where
Woodward had worked until his death in 1944, used fluorine dating
to determine that Piltdown man was not an ancestral species, but an
elaborate hoax. One problem was that the fluorine uptake varies
from location to location. Bones from different sites might have the
same amount of fluorine but be of different ages. However, Oakley
demonstrated that for a given location, bones with higher amounts
of fluorine were demonstrably older than bones from the same site
with lower amounts.
Relative Dating Methods: Biostratigraphic (Faunal)
Dating
§ Index fossils
• Fossils with distinctive features
• Existed for short (geological) time period
• Widely spread
• Can be used to determine age of associated
strata
§ Examples:
• Fossil pig molars
• Irish elk

Different strata contained different kinds of fossils. Because of

the law of superposition, index fossils could be used to assess
the relative age of particular strata.
Relative Dating Methods: Cultural Dating

Seriation: formation,
arrangement,
succession, or position
in a series or orderly
sequence.
 Palynology is the study of microorganic material such
as spores, pollen, dinoflagellates and microfossils. It is
Diagram of Pollen employed by a range of disciplines all concerned with
Spores & Grains the environment. Methods to study these materials
can provide information about human diet and the
environment including how human activity has
affected the environment at a particular location. For
example, pollen analysis has been used to track the
spread of the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution by
observing the pollen and spore remains associated
with the breeding of plants such as wheat, barley and
other grains. Pollen is remarkably resistant to decay
and changes in their concentrations across the strata
can help researchers to draw assumptions about
sequences of events. This can also be called
biostratigraphy.
 Patination is the process by which artifacts develop a thin
layer on its surface that is the result of chemical, physical
and/or biological changes that result from soil or
environmental conditions. This thin layer is called the
“patina,” and it can be formed intentionally (by using
oxidizing chemicals) or unintentionally (by exposure
surfaces to an oxidizing environment).

Patinas usually appear in colors different from the color of

the substrate of the original object, with variations
depending upon the composition of the substrate and on
Patina on Metal the chemicals introduced.

The more patina that is formed the older For example, bronze, which is a yellow metal, can form
the artifact is potentially. many colors as it undergoes patination, including black,
brown, red, and green.
The amount of patina and the quality of the patina
can be affected by the amount of time that has
passed allowing for the conditions to be present to The James Ossuary is a 1st-century limestone box that
was used for containing the bones of the dead. An
create such patina. Therefore, we can use the Aramaic inscription meaning "James (Jacob), son of
amount of patina formation to indicate what Joseph, brother of Jesus" is cut into one side of the box.

things are older or younger for similar types of In 2003, The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) argued
artifacts. that the inscriptions were forged at a much later date.
On June 18, 2003, the Israeli Antiquities Authority published a report concluding that the
inscription is a modern forgery based on their analysis of the patina. Specifically, it claimed that
the inscription was added in modern times and made to look old by addition of a chalk
solution.

In 2004, an analysis of the ossuary's petrography and oxygen isotopic composition was
conducted by Avner Ayalon, Miryam Bar-Matthews and Yuval Goren. They compared the δ18O
values of the letters’ patina from the James Ossuary with the patina sampled from the
uninscribed surfaces of the same item ("surface patina"), and with surface and letters patinas
from legally excavated ossuaries from Jerusalem. Their study undermined the authenticity
claim of the ossuary. However, Dr James Harrell, professor of Archaeological Geology at the
University of Toledo, provided an explanation for this δ18O discrepancy. He suggested that a
cleanser may have been the source of the low δ18O readings, which antiquities dealers and
collectors often use to clean the artifacts to increase value. He tested the most popular
cleanser sold in Israel and confirmed that the δ18O value of the cleanser was consistent with
the δ18O value of the patina in the inscription.

In 2006, Wolfgang Elisabeth Krumbein, a world-renowned expert in stone patinas called by the
defense counsel, analyzed the ossuary, and concluded that "the inscription is ancient and most
of the original patina has been removed (by cleaning or use of sharp implement)". He further
noted in his report, "any forgery of three very distinct types of patina, if ever possible, requires
the development of ultra-advanced techniques, in-depth knowledge and extensive
collaboration of a large number of experts from various fields". According to his analysis, the
patina inside the inscription took at least 50 years to form; thus, if it is a forgery, then it was
forged more than 50 years ago.

In 2007 Finnish theologian Matti Myllykoski (Arto Matti Tuomas Myllykoski) summarised the
current position thus: "The authenticity and significance of the ossuary has been defended by
Shanks (2003), while some scholars—relying on convincing evidence, to say the least—strongly
suspect that it is a modern forgery."

In 2008, an archaeometric analysis conducted by Amnon Rosenfeld, Howard Randall Feldman,

and Wolfgang Elisabeth Krumbein strengthened the authenticity contention of the ossuary. It
found that patina on the ossuary surface matched that in the engravings, and that microfossils
in the inscription seemed naturally deposited.
Relative and Absolute (Numerical) Dating
§ Relative Dating:
• Provides a chronological
sequence
§ Absolute Dating:
• Provides a specific point
in time
Absolute Methods of Dating: Dendrochronology
§ “Tree-ring dating”
• Only useful in a few areas
§ A. E. Douglass discovered that the
seasons caused trees to suspend their
growth in the winter and resume it in
the spring. This interruption and
subsequent resumption of growth
resulted in an annual formation of a
discernible tree ring, and a distinctive
pattern of tree rings in a cross-section of
a fallen tree.
Dendrochronology is the scientific discipline concerned with dating and interpreting past events, such as climatic trends, based on the analysis of tree
rings. Each year a new tree ring is formed. The quality or width of the tree ring may suggest environmental and climate conditions associated with the
year that particular ring was formed. It is also a type of absolute dating technique because we can establish specific years associated with each of the
tree rings.
Cross dating is a technique whereby an archaeologist
can date a site or a specific layer in the stratigraphy by
using an object found at the site that comes from another
location where similar objects of the same type have a
known date. This provides a good estimate for dating
things. In the Mediterranean world, especially the Eastern
Mediterranean world, often things are dated compared to
Egyptian artifacts that may have been found at sites
outside of Egypt. The Ancient Egyptian chronology is well
established and is often used as a means for cross dating
other locations, events and artifacts outside of Egypt.

• Dating by reference.

You can also use cross dating techniques to help establish

chronologies for various sites belonging to the same
culture.
Carbon Dating is a form of radiometric dating.

All living, organic, things are made of carbon. We can date

organic materials by looking at the ratio of two types of
carbon atoms (carbon isotopes). Essentially, what is being
measured is the amount of decay associated with a
certain type of atom isotope found in organic material
determining when it was last alive.

An isotope is defined as two or more forms of the same

element that contain equal numbers of protons but
different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei.

We can use organic material to date the stratigraphic

layers where the organic materials were found by
associating the date of the organic material with that of the
stratigraphic layer. This would mean that other artifacts
that are not organic, like ceramics and stone tools, found
in that stratigraphic layer can be dated by association to
the organic materials that were dated in the same
stratigraphic layer.
Plants get their carbon from the atmosphere. Animals get their carbon
composition from eating these plants.

Most carbon atoms have 6 protons and 6 neutrons. We call this Carbon
12 (C12). However, in the upper atmosphere cosmic rays create Carbon
14 (C14). This is caused by nitrogen atoms (N14) collading with
neutrons resulting in a carbon atom with 6 protons and 8 neutrons.

C12 also exists in the atmosphere and is more abundant.

C12 and C14 behave similarly; but C14 is unstable and will eventually
decay back into nitrogen. Therefore, C14 is radioactive. C12 is stable;.
Despite C14 being radioactive, it is formed at a reliable and steady rate.
So at any point in time we have a good idea of the ratio between C12
and C14 atoms in the atmosphere.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is essential to life on earth. The trees breath it in

and animals and people eat the plants and/or other animals that eat the
plants that take in the carbon dioxide. Carbon enters organic material
through this process of ingesting CO2. CO2 is made up of both C12 and
C14 atoms. The C12 and C14 ratio of organic material is the same found
in the atmosphere; therefore, it is predictable and the rate at which C14
decays does so at a predictable rate.
C14 begins to decay when the organic material “dies”
causing the amount C14 to decrease at a steady rate,
changing the ration between C12 and C14 found in the
organic material. Every 5,730 years (on average) about
half the amount of C14 in the organic material will
convert to nitrogen. This is known as C14’s half-life.
Therefore, after 5,730 years, the organic materials will
have half the amount of C14 (1 half life). After an other half
life, the organic material will have about a quarter (1/4th)
of the amount C14 (11,460 years or 2 half lives). After an
other half life, it will have one-eighth (1/8th) the amount of
C14 (17,190 years) and so on until there is no more C14.
Eventually, there will be no more C14 found in the organic
material. The amount of C12 in the organic material, on the
other hand, stays the same. Therefore, as indicated
already, by measuring the ratio of C14 to C12 we can
measure how many years have passed since the organic
material died. In other words, what we are dating is how
long ago from the present did the organic material died.
• Carbon dating works for organic materials up to around 50,000
years old. For older materials, we use other element isotopes that
have longer half lives such in Potassium-Argon dating.

Future archaeologists, however, will have a difficult time in dating

present organic materials thanks to all the atomic explosions and
nuclear meltdowns like Chernobyl in Ukraine and Fukushima in Japan
along with our industrial activities affecting the amount of carbon
dioxide in our atmosphere. These activities affect the amount of C12
and C14 in the atmosphere; therefore, it will affect the amount of C12
and C14 in all organic materials found on earth today including all
humans. Scientist are already working on correcting this issue. But do
not worry.

We are still okay with dating ancient artifacts older than our nuclear
age. Their carbon isotope constituency has not been affected. Only
ours has been. Future archaeologists may have a problem dating
anything after the 1950’s if we do not come up with a fix.
 There can be other issues that can potentially affect the carbon date of
an artifact. For example, if an artifact that has organic material that was
housed in a museum or church or other space that experienced a fire.
The organic material that survived the fire will have its carbon atoms
effected thereby jeopardizing the dating of that artifact. Essentially, the
fire will reset the age of the organic material to the date of the fire and
not when the organic material was last living on earth.

Carbon dates can be calibrated using tree rings. These calibrations

gives us the ability to assign specific calendar dates to the artifacts
being studied:

• Calibration is necessary to account for changes in the global

radiocarbon concentration over time.

• Radiocarbon measurements are usually reported in years BP with

Oxalic Acid I (C2H2O4). Oxalic acid I is N.I.S.T designation SRM 4990 B and is zero BP defined as AD 1950. We can calculate the age of
termed HOx1. This is the International Radiocarbon Dating Standard. Ninety-
five percent of the activity of Oxalic Acid from the year 1950 is equal to the
something more specifically by taking into account the number of
measured activity of the absolute radiocarbon standard which is 1890 wood. years between 1950 and the present. Why 1950 you may ask?
1890 wood was chosen as the radiocarbon standard because it was growing Because it marked the publication of the first radiocarbon dates in
prior to the fossil fuel effects of the industrial revolution. The activity of 1890
wood is corrected for radioactive decay to 1950. Thus 1950, is year 0 BP by
December 1949, and 1950 also dates before large scale
convention in radiocarbon dating and is deemed to be the 'present'. atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons and nuclear meltdowns that
However, as I stated, we can add the number of years that have passed since have taken place, which altered the global ratio of carbon-14 to
1950 in order to bring the date to the “real present.”
carbon-12.
https://youtu.be/-xKvq6VLe4s?si=F_lq-mP2ff8ZzJAp
Absolute Dating Methods: Dating Volcanic Rock
Since Radiocarbon Dating is only useful in dating
organic remains no older than 50,000 (maybe 75,000)
years old, what do we do to absolute date fossils that
are much older?
We use dating methods that rely on isotopes having a
much longer half life than 5,730 years for carbon-14.
The half-life of radioactive uranium-238 is 4.5 billion
years; uranium-235 is 713 million years; argon-40 and
potassium-40 each have a half-life of 1.3 billion years.
This latter isotope, potassium, has been incredibly
important in helping scientists determine the age of the
fossils we will be discussing for a great deal of the class.
§ Clock in a rock” radiopotassium (K/Ar or Ar/Ar)
dating
• Dates volcanic layers between fossils
• Dates volcanic rock older than 200,000
• Important in East Africa
§ Fission track dating
Fission track dating is a radiometric dating
technique based on analyses of the
damage trails, or tracks, left by fission
fragments in certain uranium-bearing
minerals and glasses.

Potassium Argon dating is a method of

dating rocks from the relative proportions
of radioactive potassium-40 and its decay
product, argon-40.

Volcanic rock contains the radioactive isotope

potassium-40, which decays into the stable gas,
argon. When a volcano erupts, it lays down a bed
of ash that contains potassium-40, but the heat of
the volcanic eruption expels all of the argon. Over
time, fossils are formed in strata that are
sandwiched by layers of volcanic ash. This ash,
which has contained radioactive potassium that
slowly but surely decays into argon gas, can be
directly dated by measuring the ratio of
radioactive potassium still in the rock to the
amount of argon gas trapped in the crystalline
structure of the rock. This idea is known as a
“clock in a rock.” Fossils themselves are not dated
using radiopotassium dating. Instead, the volcanic
layers surrounding the fossils are dated.

Measures amount of Argon relative to the

amount of Potassium. More Argon, the older the
rock.