A Brief Overview on Chemical and Physical Aspects of Archaeological Dating Techniques and Their Applications in Dating Construction Materials and Buildings
S. P. Dunuweera
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and Postgraduate Institute of Science (PGIS), University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
R. M. G. Rajapakse *
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and Postgraduate Institute of Science (PGIS), University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This review is devoted to answering the important question of physical and chemical aspects of dating archaeological remains, particularly, ancient structures. Basically, stratigraphy and typology are considered relative dating techniques while radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology and thermo- luminescence are absolute dating techniques. Radiocarbon dating is particularly used to estimate the age of living beings subsequent to their death where radioactivity of 14ºc isotope is used which is the longest-lived radioisotope of carbon with a half-life of 5,700 years. Dendrochronology is the science or technique of dating events, environmental change, and archaeological artefacts by using the characteristic patterns of annual growth rings in timber and tree trunks. Thermo-luminescence is a technique based on measuring luminescence of material that has been constructed by subjecting to high temperatures. Archaeological dating is very important in structural engineering as well as in archaeology and we now review the applicability of above techniques in dating engineering materials.
Keywords: Archaeological dating, engineering materials, physical and chemical methods, reviewing dating techniques