ANT 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Relative Dating, Cosmic Ray
Document Summary
A technique used to estimate the antiquity of archaeological materials, generally based on association with materials of known age or simply to say that one item is younger or older than another (often use stratigraphic relationships) Also rely on association of various items. This method is limited, and so absolute dating is needed to answer most questions about the past. Radiopotassium dating: the relationship between items in an archaeological site. Items in association are found close together and/or in the same layer or deposit. A method of assigning archaeological dates in calendar years so that an age in actual number of years is known or can be estimated. One of the several atomic states of an element; for example, carbon occurs as 12c, 13c, and 14c, also known as carbon-14 or radiocarbon. A method for absolute dating that relies on known rates of decay in radioactive isotopes, especially carbon, potassium, and uranium.
