The primary aim of this volume is to illustrate how the latest scientific methods may be applied to Medieval Archaeology in Europe and the Middle East. It contains papers originally presented at an international conference on the application of science to Medieval Archaeology held at the University of California, Los Angeles, under the auspices of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Isotope Laboratory of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics.
Among the methods described, some of which are still very much in the experimental stage, are rapid X-ray fluorescence analysis, thermoluminescence dating, dendrochronology, tephrochronology, radiocarbon dating, and archeomagnetic dating.
Author(s): Rainer Berger (ed.)
Series: Contributions of the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 4
Publisher: University of California Press
Year: 1970
Language: English
Pages: XVIII+460
INTRODUCTION: THE RETICENCES OF THE MIDDLE AGES / Lynn White, jr. 3
PART ONE: DATING METHODS
I. THE PHYSICAL SCIENCE OF RADIOCARBON DATING / W. F. Libby 17
II. THE POTENTIAL AND LIMITATIONS OF RADIOCARBON DATING IN THE MIDDLE AGES: THE ART HISTORIAN’S VIEW / W. Horn 23
III. THE POTENTIAL AND LIMITATIONS OF RADIOCARBON DATING IN THE MIDDLE AGES: THE RADIOCHRONOLOGIST’S VIEW / R. Berger 89
IV. RADIOCARBON DATING OF MEDIEVAL, TIMBERFRAMED CRUCK COTTAGES / J. M. Fletcher 141
V. CLIMATE AND RADIOCARBON DURING THE MIDDLE AGES / H. E. Suess 159
VI. SUNSPOTS AND RADIOCARBON DATING IN THE MIDDLE AGES / D. C. Grey and P. E. Damon 167
VII. CONCEPTS AND TECHNIQUES OF DENDROCHRONOLOGY / C. W. Ferguson 183
VIII. CENTRAL EUROPEAN DENDROCHRONOLOGY FOR THE MIDDLE AGES / B. Huber and V. Giertz 201
IX. THE MEDIEVAL TIMBER-FRAME TRADITION / F. W. B. Charles 213
X. THE RELIABILITY OF TYPOLOGICAL DATING OF MEDIEVAL ENGLISH ROOFS / J. T. Smith 239
XI. THERMOLUMINESCENCE DATING OF ANCIENT POTTERY / M. I. Aitken 271
XII. POTENTIAL OF THERMOLUMINESCENCE IN SUPPLEMENTING RADIOCARBON FOR DATING IN THE MIDDLE AGES / M. C. Han and E. K. Ralph 281
XIII. TEPHROCHRONOLOGY AND MEDIEVAL ICELAND / S. Thorarinsson 295
XIV. ARCHAEOMAGNETIC DATING / M. J. Aitken 329
PART TWO: TRACING METHODS
XV. THE POSSIBILITY OF MEASURING VARIATIONS IN THE INTENSITY OF WORLDWIDE LEAD SMELTING DURING MEDIEVAL AND ANCIENT TIMES USING LEAD AEROSOL DEPOSITS IN POLAR SNOW STRATA / C. C. Patterson, T. J. Chow, and M. Murozumi 339
XVI. CHEMICAL STUDIES OF ISLAMIC LUSTER GLASS / R. H. Brill 351
XVII. PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF SOME MEDIEVAL NEAR EASTERN GLAZED CERAMICS / J. D. Frierman 379
XVIII. DEDUCTION OF PROVENIENCE OF POTTERY FROM TRACE ELEMENT ANALYSIS / I. Perlman and F. Asaro 389
XIX. RAPID X-RAY FLUORESCENCE ANALYSIS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL MATERIALS / H. Bowman, R. D. Giauque, and I. Perlman 409
XX. MAGNETIC PROSPECTING / M. J. Aitken 423
ADDENDUM: CORROSION IN ARCHAEOLOGY / I. Cornet 437
INDEX 457
