925
Accession Number
20814
Title Of Article Chaper
Dating by archaeomagnetic and thermoluminescent methods
Title Of Journal Book
Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, Ser. A
Volume
269
Issue
1193
Pages
77-88
Collation
12 p. : ills., 1 fig., 2 tables
Reference Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references
Language Of Text
English
Literature Type
Serial
Literature Level
Analytic
Abstract
Magnetic measurements on oriented samples from the baked clay walls and floors of pottery kilns, etc., enable the ancient direction of the Earth's magnetic field to be determined. This direction is recorded at the last firing by the phenomenon of thermoremanent magnetism. The time variation of this direction is found from measurements on structures of archaeologically known date and this information can then be used in reverse for dating. The above technique requires the existence of a reliable archaeological chronology. On the other hand, thermoluminescence measurements on fragments of pottery yield ages that are independent of existing chronologies. Thermoluminescent dating will therefore be valuable in checking the validity of the corrections to radiocarbon ages discussed in the proceeding papers.
Keywords
Dating;archaeomagnetic;thermoluminescence -- CAL
pub_id
925