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THE CASTLE OF ACHANDUIN, LISMORE—A POINT OF REFERENCE FOR THE RADIOCARBON ANALYSIS OF MORTAR-ENTRAPPED RELICT LIMEKILN FUELS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2020

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Mark Thacker*
Affiliation:
University of Stirling, School of Arts and Humanities, Stirling, Scotland, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

The results of a short program of landscape, buildings and materials analysis undertaken at Achanduin Castle, Lismore, Scotland (NM 8043 3927) are presented from the pilot phase of the Scottish Medieval Castles & Chapels C14 Project (SMCCCP). The study presents the first independent chronological evidence relating to the construction of this important medieval building, by radiocarbon analysis of a limited assemblage of Mortar-Entrapped Relict Limekiln Fuel (MERLF) fragments. Informed by a wider investigation of structural phasing and sample taphonomy, these measurements are constrained within a series of different Bayesian models, to generate a range of comparative estimates for the building’s constructional chronology. The precision with which the construction of this building can now be dated, from other evidence associated with the site, makes the Achanduin Castle study a useful point of reference for wider materials research.

Keywords

buildingsmedievalmortarradiocarbon AMS datingScotland
Type
Conference Paper
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 62 , Issue 6: Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium , December 2020 , pp. 1563 - 1575
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Copyright
© 2020 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona

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Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 9th Radiocarbon & Archaeology Symposium, Athens, GA, USA, 20–24 May 2019

References

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