Radiocarbon dating, right? How does that work, and how can we ensure its accuracy?
In: Planetary Science
Others have explained radiocarbon dating, but there are many things to which it is not applicable. Generally, it can tell you roughly when an organism died. This can tell you when a person died from their remains (if they’re in good enough condition) or when, for example, the organic material used to make a piece of wood, fabric, or paper died. It generally isn’t much good for dating a stone building or a bronze arrowhead, though. So, a combination of other methods are used, including written records and stratigraphy (the last one is referring to the idea that older artefacts tend to be buried deeper than more recent ones, often in clearly defined layers). Sometimes you can cross-reference things with known natural events like volcanic eruptions (which can leave layers of ash) or appearances of comets (which people often wrote about).
Latest Answers