Dating Techniques
Archaeological science has particular value when it can provide absolute dates for archaeological strata and artifacts. Some of the most important dating techniques include:
- radiocarbon dating — especially for dating organic materials
- dendrochronology — for dating trees; also very important for calibrating radiocarbon dates
- thermoluminescence dating — for dating inorganic material (including ceramics)
- optically stimulated luminescence (OSL)/optical dating — for absolutely dating and relatively profiling buried land-surfaces in vertical and horizontal stratigraphic sections, most often by measuring photons discharged from grains of quartz within sedimentary bodies (although this technique can also measure feldspars, complications caused by internally induced dose-rates often favor the use of quartz-based analyzes in archaeological applications)
- electron spin resonance, as used (for example) in dating teeth
- potassium-argon dating — for dating (for example) fossilized hominid remains by association with volcanic sediments (the fossils themselves are not directly dated)
Read more about this topic: Archaeological Science
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