Date: Thursday, 11/05/2009; 12:00PM - 1:00PM
Location: Room 2009 Ruthven Museums
Host Department:
Museum of Anthropology
The development of radiocarbon dating marked a fundamental shift in the practice of archaeology. Accelerator mass spectrometry further revolutionized the amount of material needed to obtain a radiocarbon date, and thus has had a profound impact on what can be dated. However, the standard methods of preparing samples for AMS dating are destructive. We utilize a plasma preparation process whereby only the very surface – on the order of 1/10 of a milligram – of an organic object is removed through a gentle chemical reaction, producing carbon dioxide that can be AMS dated. As the object is generally unchanged after exposure to the plasma, we call this “nondestructive” radiocarbon dating. The plasma process can also be applied to residues, and was first utilized for preparing samples of rock paintings for AMS dating. This talk will describe how the plasma process works, results so far, and some of the capabilities and limitations of this unique approach to a complex problem.
Contact Information
Judy Hartsuff
judyhart@umich.edu
734/764-0485
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