DATING METHODS AND CHRONOLOGY

C.J. Thomsens great achievement in the 19 th century was to establish a three-part organization of tools for the Old World into those of stone, bronze and iron, which stratigraphic excavation confirmed was a chronological sequence: stone artifact came before bronze ones, and then iron ones. This idea that something is older/younger relative to something else is the basis of relative dating. The ability to date artefacts and sites is fundamental to archaeological research Objects and sites must be situated in their historical context if they are to tell us something meaningful about the past. The first and often most important step in archaeological research is to place things into a sequence, to date them relative to each other.

RELATIVE DATING
The determination of chronological sequence without recourse to a fixed time scale Artefacts or sites are compared to determine which is older or younger relative to the others 1. STRATIGRAPHY Stratigraphy is the study of stratification the laying down or depositing of strata of layers (also called deposits) one above the other. From the point of view of relative dating, the important principle is that the underlying layer was deposited first and therefore earlier than the overlying layer. A succession of layers should provide a relative chronological sequence, from earliest (bottom) to latest (top). When two objects are found in association within the same archaeological deposit, we generally mean that they become buried at the same time. If one of the objects can be given an absolute date, then it is possible to assign the absolute date for all the objects in the deposit. Principles of Stratigraphy

Law of superposition: In any undisturbed depositional sequence, each layer is younger than the layer beneath it Law of association: Objects or features associated together in the same depositional unit have the same depositional date and can be no later (no more recent) than the deposit itself Thomas Jefferson Good stratigraphy (sealed deposits) = good relative sequence for the time of burial of the objects found associated in those deposits 2. TYPOLOGICAL SEQUENCES typology is the result of the classification of things according to their characteristics, like material, size, colour, decorations etc. First, the products of a given period and place have a recognizable style; through their distinctive shape and decoration they are in some sense characteristic of the society that produced them. Second, the change in style of artifacts is gradual or evolutionary. The 19th century archaeologist who became master of the typological methods was the Swedish archaeologist, Oscar Montenlius. Formulated local relative chronologies for many regions of Europe. He then looked at spatial differences as well, and made assumptions that the direction of influence of new styles was from the Near East and the Mediterranean, spreading north into Europe. Recent work on absolute dating methods has shown that many of this assumptions of how styles spread were wrong, but it remains true that the first step for archaeologists finding artefacts is to match them with an artefact within a well-established typological system. Montelius is The master of the typological method Seriation Seriation based on changes in the frequency (abundance) of a particular style over time Case study: Headstones in Colonial cemeteries in New England (Dethlefsen and Deetz 1966)

The technique of seriation allows assemblages of artifacts to be arranged in a succession or serial order, which then can indicate their ordering in time. The technique has two versions: contextual seriation and frequency seriation. Contextual seriation, whose pioneer is Flinders Petrie, is about the duration of different artifact styles, like shape and decoration. (ex. at pg. 126-7) Frequency seriation relies on measuring changes in the proportional abundance, or frequency, of an artifact. (ex. at pg. 127) 3. GENETIC AND LINGUISTIC DATING Genetic dating is not applicable to artifacts or to samples of ancient DNA, but to what it may be termed as population events, just like linguistic dating. In linguistic dating, these pertain to language-speaking groups, for example the date of dispersal of different group within a language family. Moreover, the early out-of-Africa dispersal of Homo sapiens have been dated by the use of molecular genetic data.

ABSOLUTE DATING
1. CHALENDARS CHRONOLOGIES AND HISTORICAL THE MAYA CALENDAR was one of great precision, used for recoding dates in inscriptions on stone columns or stelae erected at Maya cities during the Classic Period. The Maya used two calendrical systems: the Calendar Round and the Long Court. The CR was used for most everyday purposes, involving two methods of counting. The 1st is the Sacred Round of 260 days and the solar year of 18 months of 20 days each plus a terminal period of 5 days. The LC was used for historical dates. The starting point was the date of 13 August 3114 BC in our Gregorian calendar.

Until the development of the first scientific dating techniques around the beginning of the 20th century, dating in archaeology depended almost entirely on historical methods, relying on chronologies and calendars that people in ancient times had themselves established. Sometimes artifacts themselves carry dates, or the names of the rulers can be dated. Therefore, a well-established chronology in one country may be used to date events in neighboring and more far-flung lands that lack their own historical records, but are mentioned in the history of other societies. Archaeologists can use the exports and

imports of objects to extend linkages by means of cross-dating (eg. Flinders Petrie Egyptian pottery). 2. DENDROCHRONOLOGY The modern technique of tree-ring dating was developed by A.E. Douglass at the beginning of the century. Today dendrochronology is used for calibrating or correcting radiocarbon dates and as an independent method of absolute dating. Most trees produce a ring of new wood each year and these circles of growth can easily be seen in a cross-section of the trunk of a felled tree. The circles wont be of uniform thickness because the rings become narrow with the increasing of the age of the tree and the amount a tree grows each year is affected by fluctuations in climate. Dendrochronologists measure and plot these rings and produce a diagram indicating the thickness of successive rings in an individual tree. Trees of the same species growing in the same area will generally show the same pattern of rings so that the growth sequence can be matched between successively older timbers to build up a chronology for the area. By matching sequences of rings from trees of different ages, Dendrochronologists can produce a long, continuous sequence extending back hundreds or thousands years from the present (eg. Bristlecone pines in Nevada; Oak in Germany 8500 BC and Ireland 5300 BC). 3. RADIOCARBON DATING Radiocarbon is the single most useful method of dating for the archaeologist, which transformed our understanding of the past, helping archaeologists to establish for the 1st time a reliable chronology of word cultures. The radiocarbon revolution also brought many surprises, including the realization that the later prehistoric period in Europe was twice as long as had been assumed, and that the origins of agriculture were several thousand years earlier than previously thought. Willard Libby, 1949. The high-energy neutrons and nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere produce atoms of carbon-14 ( 14C), which are unstable because they have eight neutrons in the nucleus instead of six as for the ordinary carbon (12C). This instability leads to radioactive decay of 14C at a regular rate. Only when a plant or an animal dies does the uptake of 14C cease, and the steady concentration of 14C begin to decline through radioactive decay. Thus, knowing the decay rate of 14C, Libby recognized that the age of the

dead plant or animal tissue could be calculated by measuring the amount of radiocarbon left in a sample. The use of the technique: Upper Paleolithic paintings in the Chauvet Cave in France. 4. POTASSIUM-ARGON DATING The potassium-argon (K-Ar) method is used by geologists to date rocks hundreds or even thousands of millions of years old. Like 14C dating, K-Ar is also based on the principle of the radioactive decay: the slow and steady decay of the radioactive isotope potassium-40 ( 40K) to the inert gas argon-40 (40Ar) in volcanic rock. Usage: Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania or Hadar in Ethiopia. 5. TRAPPED ELECTRON DATING METHODS Thermoluminescence dating, optical dating and ESR dating are also dependent upon radioactive decay, but indirectly, as the amount of radiocarbon received by the specimen to be dated in important, and not the radiation emitted by the specimen itself. The methods can only be used to date crystalline materials (minerals).

QUIZ

Uranium series dating is particularly useful for the period 500.000 to 50.000 years ago. Radiocarbon dates must be calibrated to correct for past variations in the radiocarbon content of the atmosphere. Before World War II most reliable absolute dates were historical ones devised from texts such as the Egyptian King lists. Optical dating is similar to thermoluminescence, but is used to date minerals which have been exposed to light rather than heat. It takes 5730 years for half of the C14 in any sample to decay. This information is the foundation of radiocarbon dating. That 5730 years is known as the half-life of C14. Accelerator mass spectrometry dating was used to help resolve the longstanding controversy over the age of the Turin Shroud.

Radiocarbon AMS dating has been applied to organic material discovered in prehistoric paintings, including human blood found in the paint of Wargata Mina cave in Tasmania. Dating the eruption of Thera (Santorini) has proven difficult, and a host of methods have been applied to determine the date, including tephra studies, radiocarbon dating, tree-ring sequences and ice cores. Absolute dating allows archaeologists to describe the age of sites, sequences and artifacts in calendar years. The idea that change in the style of artifacts is often gradual came from Darwin's theory of the evolution of the species. By measuring the hydration layer on obsidian tools, which is known to increase over time, an estimate of age may be established. Battleship curves in frequency seriation indicate peak popularity of a style of pottery. Using coins to date archaeological deposits provides a terminus post quem. When the volcano on Thera erupted, the prehistoric site of Akrotiri was buried. Electron spin resonance (ESR)'s most successful application is in the dating of tooth enamel. Fluctuations in climate during the Ice Age were much more complex than originally though. From the beginning of the Pleistocene, about 2.6 million years ago, down to about 780,000 years ago, there were perhaps 10 cold periods separated by warmer interludes. A floating chronology is the term used when either king list or other historical record is not linked to our calendar or a short-term tree-ring sequence is not tied to the main sequence. A good example of the use of thermoluminescence is the dating of the terracotta Jemaa head from the Jos Plateau, Nigeria. Annual deposits of sediment in lake beds, known as varves, provided the first fairly reliable estimate for the date of the end of the last Ice Age.