Dating Techniques
Dating Techniques
Presented by:
Kim & Anthony Lakas
Anthropology 206
Spring 2010
Dating Techniques
(______________ AGE) Dating – The science of determining the relative order of past events without
necessarily determining the absolute age.
Law of superposition
 Basis: ________ is lower
 __________: Just about anything
 __________: Just about any time
Stratigraphic Correlation
 Basis: like strata from different regions are related to the same _______
 Material: ________ and fossils
 Date range: Just about _________ __________
Biostratigraphy Faunal
 Basis: _________ of animals
 Material: bones and ________
 Date range: Depends on __________ used
Chemical dating
 Basis: fossil ___________of chemicals in soil like fluorine
 Material: ________
 Date range: < __________BP
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Dating Techniques
Cultural Dating
 Basis: artifacts are __________ _________
 Material: artifacts
 Date range: up to _____ mya
Oxygen isotopes in deep sea cores
 Basis: ratio of oxygen __________in foraminifera reflects sea temperature
 Material: deep sea cores
 Date range: ?
_____________________
 Basis: direction of_____________ in magnetic minerals when they solidified
 Material: magnetic minerals
 Date range: Sequence currently covers last _____mya
Numerical (_________________) Dating – is a dating method that provides an actual age in years for a
defined piece of material or event.
Dendrochonology
 Basis: ____________ growth in tree rings/rainfall
 Material: Specific tree species
 Date Range: ________________BP
Radio Carbon (____-_____) Half life
 Basis: Ratio of C-14 to ____-_____
 Half life: ________ years +/- sigma
 Material: anything organic
 Date Range:____________________ BP
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Dating Techniques
Beryllium-10/Be-9
 Basis: radio isotope _______
 Half life _______M.Y.
 Material: beryllium containing rock
 Date Range: ?
K-40/AR-40 AR-40/AR-39
 Basis: radio isotope decay
 Half life: ____________ years
 Material: volcanic rock
 Date Range: > ________ yBP
Amino Acid Dating
 Basis: ____________ - process by which L form amino acids changes to D forms.
 Material: bone, some shell
 Date Range: 1mya to ______________BP
Fission Tracks
 Basis: fission tracks from radio _________ decay
 Material: volcanic glasses
 Date Range: up to ______MYA
Electron spin resonance
 Basis: concentrations of radio isotopes
 Material: _____, ________
 Date Range: several thousand to >1 mya
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Dating Techniques
Luminescence (_______ _________)
 Basis: _________ ________
 Material: ceramics, some stone, sediments
 Date Range: up to 800,000 yBP
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