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Selecting the Most Reliable 14C Dating Material Inside Mortars: the Origin of the Padua Cathedral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2019

Anna Addis ,
Michele Secco ,
Fabio Marzaioli Open the ORCID record for Fabio Marzaioli [Opens in a new window] ,
Gilberto Artioli ,
Alexandra Chavarría Arnau ,
Isabella Passariello ,
Filippo Terrasi  and
Gian Pietro Brogiolo
Anna Addis*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Geoscienze, Università di Padova, Italy Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerca per lo Studio dei Materiali Cementizi e dei Leganti Idraulici (CIRCe), Università di Padova, Italy
Michele Secco
Affiliation:
Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerca per lo Studio dei Materiali Cementizi e dei Leganti Idraulici (CIRCe), Università di Padova, Italy Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile ed Ambientale, Università di Padova, Italy
Fabio Marzaioli
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta, Italy
Gilberto Artioli
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Geoscienze, Università di Padova, Italy Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerca per lo Studio dei Materiali Cementizi e dei Leganti Idraulici (CIRCe), Università di Padova, Italy
Alexandra Chavarría Arnau
Affiliation:
Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali, Università di Padova, Italy
Isabella Passariello
Affiliation:
Laboratorio CIRCE e INNOVA, Caserta, Italy
Filippo Terrasi
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta, Italy Laboratorio CIRCE e INNOVA, Caserta, Italy
Gian Pietro Brogiolo
Affiliation:
Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali, Università di Padova, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

In order to radiocarbon (14C) date a building, several components of the mortar could be used, such as the mortar binder, the lime lumps, the charcoal particles and shell fragments eventually present among the aggregates. In particular, the mortar binder requires a purification treatment in order to separate it from other sources of carbon, which could change the 14C signature of the binder invalidating the dating process. Here, we present the application of the Cryo2Sonic method to 14C dating of the ancient building structures unearthed during excavation at the Padua Cathedral complex. The dated samples were pretreated by using Cryo2Sonic method and the improved Cryo2Sonic version 2.0, recently developed by introducing additional steps such as centrifugation of the mortar suspension and gravimetric sedimentation of the binder fractions. The Cryo2Sonic version 2.0 relies heavily on the characterization of the mortar and of the purified binder fractions, allowing the isolation of a reliable 14C datable mortar fraction. Through this new method, the 14C dating of different ancient structures excavated next to the Padua Cathedral allow to identify the first religious complex of the city of Padua (3rd–4th centuries AD).

Keywords

14C mortar datingCryo2SonicCryo2Sonic version 2.0Padua Cathedralradiocarbon mortar reliability
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , April 2019 , pp. 375 - 393
Copyright
© 2019 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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