Re: Problems with the radio carbon dating of the Newport Tower

On 2007-11-29, Eric Stevens <eric.stevens@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Problems with the radiocarbon dating of the Newport Tower were
extensively discussed in this news group ca 1999~2000. Google has come
to life and I have carried out a search on <mortar penetration> for
the group sci.archaeology and author Eric Stevens. The result can be
found at http://tinyurl.com/yudnao There is much more to be found
using other search terms.

[...]

Thanks for an interesting read :))

I've found <http://www.c14dating.com/>

Welcome to radiocarbon WEB-info. Radiocarbon dating is the technique
upon which chronologies of the late Pleistocene and Holocene have been
built. This resource is designed to provide online information
concerning the radiocarbon dating method. We hope it will be of
occasional use to radiocarbon users and interested students alike.

Copyright © 1999 Tom Higham, Radiocarbon Laboratory, University of
Waikato, New Zealand

and <http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/kevin.greene/wintro/chap4.htm>

Archaeology: An Introduction - 4th Edition 2002
The Online Companion: updated November 2007
CHAPTER 4 : Dating the Past

which are worth a look, I think.

"Carbon 14 dating mortar in Ireland":

<http://radiocarbon.library.arizona.edu/radiocarbon/GetFileServlet?file=fil
e:///data1/pdf/Radiocarbon/Volume34/Number3/azu_radiocarbon_v34_n3_880_889_
v.pdf&type=application/pdf> (or <http://shortlinks.co.uk/5ep> for short)
is a paper by Rainer Berger in "Radiocarbon", vol 34 no. 3, 1992. Ten
pages.

The technique used here was to extract charcoal, left over from the
original firing of the lime, and date that - not the mortar itself. The
samples required were pretty large, and were taken from the core of
substantial walls by removing outer stones so as to eliminate as much
post-construction contamination as possible. The method was checked by
getting samples from structures whose ages are well established by other
means (such as written records). The author discusses why dating of the
mortar itself is not reliable.

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~
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