1. AMS 14C dating of lime mortar
- Author
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Jan Heinemeier, Alf Lindroos, Thorborg von Konow, Åsa Ringbom, N. Rud, and Högne Jungner
- Subjects
010506 paleontology ,Nuclear and High Energy Physics ,060102 archaeology ,Colonial time ,Mineralogy ,Large series ,06 humanities and the arts ,engineering.material ,01 natural sciences ,Archaeology ,Chemical separation ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,chemistry ,Optical control ,Internal consistency ,engineering ,Carbonate ,0601 history and archaeology ,Lime mortar ,Mortar ,Instrumentation ,Geology ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences - Abstract
A method for refining lime mortar samples for 14 C dating has been developed. It includes mechanical and chemical separation of mortar carbonate with optical control of the purity of the samples. The method has been applied to a large series of AMS datings on lime mortar from three medieval churches on the Aland Islands, Finland. The datings show convincing internal consistency and confine the construction time of the churches to AD 1280–1380 with a most probable date just before AD 1300. We have also applied the method to the controversial Newport Tower, Rhode Island, USA. Our mortar datings confine the building to colonial time in the 17th century and thus refute claims of Viking origin of the tower. For the churches, a parallel series of datings of organic (charcoal) inclusions in the mortar show less reliable results than the mortar samples, which is ascribed to poor association with the construction time.
- Published
- 1997
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