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How to determine age of stones (and other inorganic matter)?
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Mark Weber
How to determine age of stones (and other inorganic matter)?
Radiocarbon dating is one form of isotopic dating, which is applicable to rocks, and is the basis for huge chucks of geology, archaeology, and astrophysics. How do you think we estimate the age of earth, moon, prehistoric pottery and tools, etc?
There are many ways to do it:
thermoluminescence dating, Cl-36 dating (within 50 years of present due to Nuclear weapons testing), U-Th dating(last 500,000 years), Optical dating (100-200,000 years before present), and I-129 dating (recent). These just are the ones I can think of off the top of my head, I'm sure there are many more, and any decent archaeology textbook will have a chapter on the subject if you need more specifics. Any method can be chosen based on what the sample is, how recent it is, and how big it is (ie how much you can destroy to get an answer).
Radiocarbon dating is one form of isotopic dating, which is applicable to rocks, and is the basis for huge chucks of geology, archaeology, and astrophysics. How do you think we estimate the age of earth, moon, prehistoric pottery and tools, etc?
There are many ways to do it:thermoluminescence dating, Cl-36 dating (within 50 years of present due to Nuclear weapons testing), U-Th dating(last 500,000 years), Optical dating (100-200,000 years before present), and I-129 dating (recent). These just are the ones I can think of off the top of my head, I'm sure there are many more, and any decent archaeology textbook will have a chapter on the subject if you need more specifics. Any method can be chosen based on what the sample is, how recent it is, and how big it is (ie how much you can destroy to get an answer).
@chipbuster Clarification: Radiocarbon dating is one form of isotopic dating. Isotopic dating can be applied to many things besides organic matter.More
I presume you mean that isotopic dating is applicable to rocks? I did a double-take at the first sentence because I thought you meant that we could use radiocarbon dating to date the moon, which would be quite impressive indeed.More
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The question being asked, I believe, is the age of the inscription or statue rather than that of the material from which it is made.
The answer, though, is that it is quite difficult to do on the basis of a single stone object. If it is found in situ, then the age of surrounding items may be a guide.
There are some clues to the age of stone objects, though. For example, if a stone object (e.g. the walls of Siloam's Tunnel) has soot on its surface, such as from torches, then radiocarbon dating shows a minimum age (because the soot could have been deposited some time after the tunnel or object was made).
Weathering of a surface can provide information, providing the object has been exposed to known atmospheric conditions; but a buried statue would erode differently from one on the surface.
For stones, or better, for ceramics, that have been heated, thermoluminescence provides an accurate way to measure age (or at least time since last being heated).
The question being asked, I believe, is the age of the inscription or statue rather than that of the material from which it is made.
The answer, though, is that it is quite difficult to do on the basis of a single stone object. If it is found in situ, then the age of surrounding items may be a guide.
There are some clues to the age of stone objects, though. For example, if a stone object (e.g. the walls of Siloam's Tunnel) has soot on its surface, such as from torches, then radiocarbon dating shows a minimum age (because the soot could have been deposited some time after the tunnel or object was made).
Weathering of a surface can provide information, providing the object has been exposed to known atmospheric conditions; but a buried statue would erode differently from one on the surface.
For stones, or better, for ceramics, that have been heated, thermoluminescence provides an accurate way to measure age (or at least time since last being heated).
Radiocarbon dating is one form of isotopic dating, which is applicable to rocks, and is the basis for huge chucks of geology, archaeology, and astrophysics. How do you think we estimate the age of earth, moon, prehistoric pottery and tools, etc?
There are many ways to do it: thermoluminescence dating, Cl-36 dating (within 50 years of present due to Nuclear weapons testing), U-Th dating(last 500,000 years), Optical dating (100-200,000 years before present), and I-129 dating (recent). These just are the ones I can think of off the top of my head, I'm sure there are many more, and any decent archaeology textbook will have a chapter on the subject if you need more specifics. Any method can be chosen based on what the sample is, how recent it is, and how big it is (ie how much you can destroy to get an answer).
Radiocarbon dating is one form of isotopic dating, which is applicable to rocks, and is the basis for huge chucks of geology, archaeology, and astrophysics. How do you think we estimate the age of earth, moon, prehistoric pottery and tools, etc?
There are many ways to do it:thermoluminescence dating, Cl-36 dating (within 50 years of present due to Nuclear weapons testing), U-Th dating(last 500,000 years), Optical dating (100-200,000 years before present), and I-129 dating (recent). These just are the ones I can think of off the top of my head, I'm sure there are many more, and any decent archaeology textbook will have a chapter on the subject if you need more specifics. Any method can be chosen based on what the sample is, how recent it is, and how big it is (ie how much you can destroy to get an answer).
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The question being asked, I believe, is the age of the inscription or statue rather than that of the material from which it is made.
The answer, though, is that it is quite difficult to do on the basis of a single stone object. If it is found in situ, then the age of surrounding items may be a guide.
There are some clues to the age of stone objects, though. For example, if a stone object (e.g. the walls of Siloam's Tunnel) has soot on its surface, such as from torches, then radiocarbon dating shows a minimum age (because the soot could have been deposited some time after the tunnel or object was made).
Weathering of a surface can provide information, providing the object has been exposed to known atmospheric conditions; but a buried statue would erode differently from one on the surface.
For stones, or better, for ceramics, that have been heated, thermoluminescence provides an accurate way to measure age (or at least time since last being heated).
One indication for the age of the Egyptian pyramids is their alignment to a calculated geologic reference that changed with time due to the precession of the Earth.
The question being asked, I believe, is the age of the inscription or statue rather than that of the material from which it is made.
The answer, though, is that it is quite difficult to do on the basis of a single stone object. If it is found in situ, then the age of surrounding items may be a guide.
There are some clues to the age of stone objects, though. For example, if a stone object (e.g. the walls of Siloam's Tunnel) has soot on its surface, such as from torches, then radiocarbon dating shows a minimum age (because the soot could have been deposited some time after the tunnel or object was made).
Weathering of a surface can provide information, providing the object has been exposed to known atmospheric conditions; but a buried statue would erode differently from one on the surface.
For stones, or better, for ceramics, that have been heated, thermoluminescence provides an accurate way to measure age (or at least time since last being heated).
One indication for the age of the Egyptian pyramids is their alignment to a calculated geologic reference that changed with time due to the precession of the Earth.
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