1st Edition

Science-Based Dating in Archaeology

By M.J. Aitken Copyright 1990
    294 Pages
    by Routledge

    296 Pages
    by Routledge

    Archaeologists and archaeology students have long since needed an authoritative account of the techniques now available to them, designed to be understood by non-scientists. This book fills the gap and it offers a two-tier approach to the subject. The main text is a coherent introduction to the whole field of science-based dating, written in plain langauge for non-scientists. Additional end-notes, however, offer a a more technical understanding, and cater for those who have a scientific and mathematical background.

    1: Generalities; 2: Climatic Clocks and Frameworks; 3: Radiocarbon – I; 4: Radiocarbon – II; 5: Potassium–argon; uranium series; fission tracks; 6: Luminescence dating; 7: Electron spin resonance; 8: Amino acid racemization; obsidian hydration; other chemical methods; 9: Magnetic Dating and Magnetostratigraphy

    Biography

    Martin Aitken retired in 1989 as Professor of Archaeometry and Deputy Director of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University.