TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparison of sample preparation procedures for mortar radiocarbon dating
T2 - Case study of Irulegi Castle (Navarre, Spain)
AU - Ponce-Antón, Graciela
AU - Lindroos, Alf
AU - Ringbom, Åsa
AU - Ortega, Luis Angel
AU - Zuluaga, Maria Cruz
AU - Hajdas, Irka
AU - Olsen, Jesper
AU - Agirre Mauleon, Juantxo
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported financially by GIC18/133 Research Group of the University of the Basque Country ( UPV/EHU ) and the International Mortar Dating Project supported by The Academy of Finland , The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters , The Foundation for Åbo Akademi University Research Institute and The Åland Cultural Foundation. G.P.-A. also acknowledges the PhD research grant of the Basque Government [ 2015-1-02-35 ]. The authors would like to thank Peter Smith for reviewing the use of English in the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - A comparison of two different mechanical separation procedures, a settling process and sieving process, was performed in the samples preparation for radiocarbon dating of archaeological lime mortars from the Tower Keep at Irulegi Castle (Navarre, Spain). The different fractions obtained by the two different mechanical separation procedures were converted to carbon dioxide by sequential dissolution in order to compare the yielded 14C ages. Fifteen AMS 14C measurements were performed from the lime mortars, as well as for a tooth and a charcoal fragment embedded in the mortar. Samples obtained by the settling process (grain-size window of 0.5–2 μm) led to more accurate radiocarbon results than samples obtained by sieving (grain-size window of 46–75 μm). The results point to Irulegi Castle existing during the 10th century as well as to the renovation of the castle defences and different repairs in the Tower Keep during the 13th and 14th centuries. Mineralogical characterization of samples was essential when discussing the radiocarbon dating results. For this end, petrographic microscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analyses and cathodoluminescence analyses were performed.
AB - A comparison of two different mechanical separation procedures, a settling process and sieving process, was performed in the samples preparation for radiocarbon dating of archaeological lime mortars from the Tower Keep at Irulegi Castle (Navarre, Spain). The different fractions obtained by the two different mechanical separation procedures were converted to carbon dioxide by sequential dissolution in order to compare the yielded 14C ages. Fifteen AMS 14C measurements were performed from the lime mortars, as well as for a tooth and a charcoal fragment embedded in the mortar. Samples obtained by the settling process (grain-size window of 0.5–2 μm) led to more accurate radiocarbon results than samples obtained by sieving (grain-size window of 46–75 μm). The results point to Irulegi Castle existing during the 10th century as well as to the renovation of the castle defences and different repairs in the Tower Keep during the 13th and 14th centuries. Mineralogical characterization of samples was essential when discussing the radiocarbon dating results. For this end, petrographic microscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analyses and cathodoluminescence analyses were performed.
KW - Lime mortar
KW - Mineralogy
KW - Particle-size differentiation
KW - Radiocarbon dating
KW - Sample preparation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088270988&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.quageo.2020.101110
DO - 10.1016/j.quageo.2020.101110
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85088270988
SN - 1871-1014
VL - 60
JO - Quaternary Geochronology
JF - Quaternary Geochronology
M1 - 101110
ER -