Relative Dating
What is relative dating?
Relative dating is determining if artifacts are younger or older than one another. Relative dating does not give us precise dates, but can tell us which artifact came first.
What is absolute dating?
Absolute dating is a method of determining the actual age of a fossil in years.
How does relative dating help archaeologists?
Relative dating can establish the order in which things took place. This can help archeologists determine how a culture or society progressed over time.
What do we need to know for isotopic dating?
1. How much isotope is there
2. Half life of isotope
3. How much was there at time of interest
Name and briefly describe the four relative dating techniques discovered in class.
Stratigraphy, Biostratigraphy, Fluorine Analysis, Paleomagnetism
Name the rules we need to follow for one of the absolute dating techniques.
Potassium-Argon: Only works on volcanic rocks, only useful on material older than 100k.
Radiocarbon: Has to be used on organic materials, materials can only be up to ~50kya.
Name the two geological concepts that archaeologists utilize in the field to understand the approximate age of artifacts and/or different layers.
The two geological concepts that archaeologists use are stratigraphy and the Law of Superposition.
Name and describe three methods of absolute dating.
Radiocarbon Dating: Measuring the remaining C-14 in an organic material to determine how long an organism died. This is reliable up to material that is around 50,000 years old.
Dendrochronology: This method uses the annual growth of tree rings to date wooden artifacts, sites, and reconstruct past climates.
Potassium-Argon Dating: This method measures the ratio of radioactive potassium 40 to stable argon, allowing us to date volcanic rocks older than around 100,000 years.