Different dating methods archaeology

Chronological dating , or simply dating , is the process of attributing to an object or event a date in the past, allowing such object or event to be located in a previously established chronology. This usually requires what is commonly known as a "dating method". Several dating methods exist, depending on different criteria and techniques, and some very well known examples of disciplines using such techniques are, for example, history , archaeology , geology , paleontology , astronomy and even forensic science , since in the latter it is sometimes necessary to investigate the moment in the past during which the death of a cadaver occurred. Dating methods are most commonly classified following two criteria: relative dating and absolute dating. Relative dating methods are unable to determine the absolute age of an object or event, but can determine the impossibility of a particular event happening before or after another event of which the absolute date is well known. In this relative dating method, Latin terms ante quem and post quem are usually used to indicate both the most recent and the oldest possible moments when an event occurred or an artifact was left in a stratum , respectively.

Archaeology is one of Kelley's great passions. He's read many books on the subject, as well as every issue of "Archaeology" since In times past, things that appeared old were simply considered old, maybe as old as the story of Atlantis, the biblical flood or the earth itself, but nobody knew for certain how old anything was. Then in the early twentieth century scientists began using absolute dating techniques, perhaps the most prominent of which is carbon

There are several dating methods that help archaeologists figure out how old objects are. In fact, there are so many that it would be impossible to describe them all in one article. Hence, this post will discuss some of the most widely-used dating methods — stratigraphy, typology, seriation, and radiocarbon dating — and we will cover the rest in subsequent articles. There are two overarching classes of dating methods: relative and absolute.

Having an accurate time scale is a crucial aspect of reconstructing how anatomical and behavioral characteristics of early hominids evolved. Relative dating methods allow one to determine if an object is earlier than, later than, or contemporary with some other object. It does not, however, allow one to independently assign an accurate estimation of the age of an object as expressed in years. The most common relative dating method is stratigraphy.