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Radiocarbon Dating Historical Mortars: Lime Lumps and/or Binder Carbonate?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2018

Alf Lindroos ,
Åsa Ringbom ,
Jan Heinemeier ,
Greg Hodgins ,
Pia Sonck-Koota ,
Pia Sjöberg ,
Lynne Lancaster ,
Riikka Kaisti ,
Fiona Brock  and
Heikki Ranta
...Show all authors
Alf Lindroos*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Åsa Ringbom
Affiliation:
Art History, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Jan Heinemeier
Affiliation:
AMS Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Greg Hodgins
Affiliation:
AMS Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Arizona, USA
Pia Sonck-Koota
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Pia Sjöberg
Affiliation:
Art History, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Lynne Lancaster
Affiliation:
Department of Classics and World Regions, Ohio University, USA
Riikka Kaisti
Affiliation:
Turku and Kaarina Parish Union, Finland
Fiona Brock
Affiliation:
RLAHA, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom; and Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham SN6 8LA, United Kingdom
Heikki Ranta
Affiliation:
Diocese of Lund, Church of Sweden, Lund, Sweden
Marta Caroselli
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy
Stefano Lugli
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: alindroo@abo.fi.
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Abstract

Lime lumps and bulk mortars show different 14C contamination when analyzed in several CO2 fractions isolated from the effervescence of an ongoing hydrolysis reaction. Age profiles of both materials are therefore highly complementary and together they can provide a reliable date. Furthermore, they can also reveal the complexity of the radiocarbon (14C) distribution within the mortar and thus prevent over-interpretation of the data. The lime lump versus bulk mortar dating data presented here has been collected over 22 years, with only a small fraction of the results so far published internationally. Since there has been an increasing interest in mortar dating over recent years with a special focus on lime lumps, and since many laboratories have just begun mortar dating experiments, we wish to present some of the extensive data that already exist. Previously published data from 15 lime lumps (including 34 14C measurements from sequential dissolution) and 43 new 14C measurements from 17 lime lumps are presented here. The samples are from medieval Finland and Sweden, classical Rome and medieval Italy, and the Roman Jerash (Gerasa), Jordan.

Keywords

14C profilescalcitehydrolysissequential dissolution
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 60 , Issue 3 , June 2018 , pp. 875 - 899
Copyright
© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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