|
|
Re: Anasazi Astronomy
JAMES BENTHALL (st26h@rosie.uh.edu)
23 Apr 1995 17:01 CDT
In article <3n49h3$m6m@lll-winken.llnl.gov>, lawson@ludwig.llnl.gov (William S. Lawson) writes...
>
>In article <19APR199517232516@jane.uh.edu>, st26h@jane.uh.edu (JAMES BENTHALL) writes:
>|> In article <3muhne$e9i@post.gsfc.nasa.gov>, dsc@gemini.gsfc.nasa.gov (Doug S. Caprette) writes...
>|> >In article 60423.28761D-100000@crash.cts.com> Robert Roosen <roosen@cts.com> writes:
>|> >>>
>|> >>Real simple. Get some radiocarbon dates from the pictographs. Has that
>|> >>been done?
>|> >
>|> >My understanding is that this is difficult to impossible due to the very small
>|> >quntity of organic residue left in those petroglyphs using organic pigments.
>|> >
>|> >Some Petroglyphs consist of inorganic pigments or just scratches in the rocks and
>|> >so cannot be carbon dated.
>|>
>|> petroglyphs are carved into the rock.
>|> pictographs are painted onto the rock.
>|>
>|> james
>
>
>Statues can sometimes be dated by measuring how far oxygen has diffused into
>the stone since it was exposed by carving. Might this be an option here?
> -- Bill Lawson
I've never heard of this (but that doesn't mean much). Normally, the
element measured is something that has leached "out" of the rock or has
been transformed into a different element since the rock's formation.
Measuring the amount of oxygen that has "diffused into the stone since it
was exposed by carving" doesn't intuitively seem like such a reliable
method of dating.
Those archaeologists will try _anything_ to feel like they're in a science!
:)
james
|