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From
Phys.org:
Archaeological pottery has been used to date archaeological sites
for more than a century, and from the Roman period onwards can offer
quite precise dating. But further back in time, for example at the
prehistoric sites of the earliest Neolithic farmers, accurate dating
becomes more difficult because the kinds of pottery are often less
distinctive and there are no coins or historical records to give
context.
This is where radiocarbon dating, also known as 14C-dating, comes to
the rescue. Until now, archaeologists had to radiocarbon date bones or
other organic materials buried with the pots to understand their age. But the best and most accurate way to date pots would be to date them
directly, which the University of Bristol team has now introduced by
dating the fatty acids left behind from food preparation.
Professor Richard Evershed from the University of Bristol's School of
Chemistry led the team. He said: "Being able to directly date
archaeological pots is one of the "Holy Grails" of archaeology. This new
method is based on an idea I had going back more than 20 years and it
is now allowing the community to better understand key archaeological
sites across the world.
"We made several earlier attempts to get the method right, but it
wasn't until we established our own radiocarbon facility in Bristol that
we cracked it. There's a particular beauty in the way these new
technologies came together to make this important work possible and now
archaeological questions that are currently very difficult to resolve
could be answered." (Read more.)
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