Review and software assessment of the recent SIMS-SS obsidian hydration dating method
Part of : Mediterranean archaeology & archaeometry : international journal ; Vol.5, No.2, 2005, pages 75-91
Issue:
Pages:
75-91
Section Title:
Articles
Abstract:
The hydration dating of ohsidian tools employing the recent method of SIMS-SS has beenfurther re-evaluated with regards to a novel in-house software (using MATLAB) and refinement ofthe procedure for the location of the surface saturation layer (SS). The latter is defined from acombination of linear regressions (for the determination of the constant concentration level) andtwo derivatives of the polynomial fitting of the whole and initial sigmoid profile of Concentrationversus Hydration depth (χ), derived by SIMS. The derivation of age equation is reviewed followinga detailed presentation of formulas and prevailed conditions. Four dates are produced with the newsoftware from the Aegean, Mexico and Easter Islands, compared to earlier calculations. In all casesthe calculated ages is concordant with the expected archaeological ages.
Subject:
Subject (LC):
Keywords:
SIMS, Obsidian, Dating, Surface saturation, Diffusion, Fick's law, SIMS-SS, Software
