How can a megalith be dated via the C14 method?
score:7
In general, structures like megaliths are dated by their archaeological context.
In most cases, a socket will have been excavated when the megalith was erected. When archaeologists excavate that socket, we're looking to retrieve evidence which might be used to provide a date for the socket, and so for the date the megalith was erected.
For C14 dating, that evidence might be provided by fragments of charcoal buried when the socket was back-filled around the megalith, or tools used to excavate the socket ( things like antler picks etc.).
Any organic material - not just artefacts that were deliberately buried at the time - can be used to obtain a C14 date.
When we excavate a site we're looking for edges that indicate features. We can trace the edge of the socket - and any later features that have been dug into it. The socket is a 'context', the megalith is a 'context', and the fill of the socket is also a 'context'.
We use these contexts, and the observed relationships between them (e.g. context x cuts into context y, therefore context y must have been there before context x was dug, and so context y is older than context x) to construct a Harris matrix. This allows us to understand the relative chronology of the site. The Wikipedia article has some helpful diagrams that illustrate the process.
Techniques like C14 allow us to get an absolute chronology for particular features/contexts within that site.
If the socket dug for a megalith (or any other structure for that matter) is left open for any length of time, the bottom of the hole tends to have a build up of silt, which we can observe during excavation. We thus have a fairly good idea of how closely the date that the megalith was erected relates to the back-fill in the hole. If there is no appreciable accumulation of silt in the hole, then the fill must be contemporaneous with the raising of the megalith, as must any organic inclusions in that material.
In the absence of excavation and dating, megalithic structures cannot be dated with confidence, as in the recent case of the stone circle in Aberdeenshire that was initially though to be a Neolithic recumbent stone circle, but which was actually built in the 1990s. (These monuments often didn't have an excavated socket, and so can be particularly hard to date).
Colin Renfrew's 'Before Civilization : the radiocarbon revolution and prehistoric Europe' is probably available from your local library, but it is worth noting that it is also available to read online at archive.org
More post
- 📝 When Louis I of Hungary died in 1382, why did Polish lords choose Jadwiga instead of Mary as the monarch?
- 📝 How did an English person get entry to East Germany during the Cold War?
- 📝 What does 'a long train' mean in the Declaration of Independence
- 📝 What was the summer uniform of the streltsy?
- 📝 Did the Soviet Union need both prongs to succeed at the Battle of Stalingrad?
- 📝 Where is Dorothea Benze's grave?
- 📝 Why was the US unable to win in Korea?
- 📝 What race were the invading Turkish armies of Anatolia?
- 📝 What family or other connection bound Chiang Kaishek and Cai Yuanpei, two ideological opposites?
- 📝 Which period is this game map supposed to represent?
- 📝 How did US anti-Irish sentiment decline?
- 📝 What was the aftermath of a battle in the Middle Ages? How did wounded soldiers proceed?
- 📝 What was the reason behind the death of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj?
- 📝 How many customs houses were there in 1850 California?
- 📝 How was it possible for the Ukrainian SSR to be one of the founding members of the UN if it was basically a Province of the USSR?
- 📝 What buildings could be found in the inner ward of a castle?
- 📝 What was the experience level of officers during the American Civil war?
- 📝 How likely would it have been for a rural Bohemian to encounter someone with darker skin?
- 📝 Did Sparta give citizenship to the helots who participated on its side in the Battle of Plataea?
- 📝 Were China's problems in the past two centuries due to "missing out" on the industrial age?
- 📝 Origin of San Francisco's water lots off Candlestick Point
- 📝 Is it true that there were American POWs in Soviet captivity after the Second World War?
- 📝 How were Mercy Dogs of WWI and WWII trained to know which soldier is from their side and which one isn't?
- 📝 Why did Western Christian monasticism really take off in Ireland?
- 📝 British colony in Berlin
- 📝 When Adam Smith discusses "corn" to what crop does he refer?
- 📝 What was the most accurate map of the world before artificial satellites?
- 📝 Where did Wilson state that the US would have to force access to markets with violence?
- 📝 What did anti-Greek stereotyping look like in the United States in the early 20th century?
- 📝 Who is 'Chlodebaudo/Chlodebaud' in the Merovingian-era Clovis I genealogy & Charlemagne ancestry, supposedly mentioned in a Salic Law manuscript?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How can a megalith be dated via the C14 method?
- 📝 How can I properly learn the history of a country whose language I don't speak or read?
- 📝 How can we explain the decline of Buddhism in India around the 12th century?
- 📝 How can the value of older currencies be expressed in modern units? How is the conversion rate calculated?
- 📝 How can we be certain of customs in the primitive age?
- 📝 How can I understand the effect of the Sonderweg on the Revolution of 1848?
- 📝 Can anyone find the letter of Tsar Alexander II to Rostovtsev dated October / December 25th, 1859?
- 📝 How can I find the most complete list of the names of Kaytn Massacre victims?
- 📝 How can I research multiple raids at the Somnath Temple?
- 📝 How can there be a "final edition" of a morning paper, in the morning?
- 📝 Is there a name for the critical method of assessing historical narratives via the consultation of primary sources?
- 📝 How can I find out what the printed numbers mean on the back of an older photo?
- 📝 How can I evaluate the relative fiscal burden on different groups in the US, for various periods between 1790 and 1846?
- 📝 How can I identify the uniform and other details in this picture of my great grandfather circa 1913?
- 📝 How can we be sure what the first day of the month was 2000 years ago and how can we determine which years were leap years?
- 📝 Can a tablet dated to the reign of king Aha be deciphered?
- 📝 How do historians and linguists know how to pronounce the names from non-phonetic scripts?
- 📝 How and when did the word "nuclear" replace the word "atomic"?
- 📝 How did Israel win the Six-Day War?
- 📝 How did the general population of England convert so smoothly to Protestantism?
- 📝 How did the USSR manage to innovate in an environment characterized by government censorship and high bureaucracy?
- 📝 How did the Romans do division?
- 📝 How did 300,000 people survive the 3 1/2 year siege of Sarajevo?
- 📝 When and how did the USA and the UK become allies?
- 📝 How did the authorities not find the speakeasy clubs during the prohibition?
- 📝 How did such a relatively minor event as the assassination of an archduke start World War I?
- 📝 How did the Roman state verify citizenship?
- 📝 How did the Nazis plan to defeat America during World War II?
- 📝 How do ancient Chinese "mirrors" such as these in the National Museum function?
- 📝 How do we know the gender distribution of cave art painters?
