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AMS Radiocarbon Dating: Its Current and Future Role in Art Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

D.C. Stulik  and
D.J. Donahue
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Extract

Since the development of 14C dating by W.F. Libby in the 1940s and 1950s, the method has proved to be the best absolute method for chronometric dating of organic and some carbon-containing inorganic materials. It has become an essential research tool for both archaeologists and geologists. Even broader application horizons have been opened to radiocarbon dating by use of the accelerator mass spectrometer, which allows routine analysis of submilligram samples. Art curatorship and art conservation directly benefit from this development.

There are pronounced similarities between application of radiocarbon dating in archaeology and art research but there are also major differences which make it difficult to simply take a methodology developed for archaeological research and apply it directly to radiocarbon dating of art objects.

In both fields the application of dating techniques focuses on dating an object of unknown age or cross-checking the age of an object previously dated by other methods.

Type
Art and Technology
Information
MRS Bulletin , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , January 1992 , pp. 53 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1992

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