16th October 2011, 08:17 AM
That's very true: but it also depends on where we are treating the matter. If it is at an Archaeology convention all columns are obviously important a cannot be overlooked. But here - in the presence of one who has to double check his sentences AND is even worse off in Archaeology (that's me, of course!) who has a very low level problem in understanding the very basic things - perhaps a somewhat more "casual" attitude may be allowed, I hope.
I may add that, regerttably, strict scientific methods (and mainly their high costs) are not very popular in Sardinia, so they are less frequently applied then elsewhere... And when they are applied, more likely they are performed by foreign labs.
There are other obstacles, of course: for instance dendrochronology still may not count on a complete referrement series, becouse of the climate, influencing the quality of predominant trees (domestic and wild olive trees cavitate and cannot be used; other trees - such as oaks - where harvested for wood or do not live long enough)...
But we might discuss this later, I hope...
In the Barumini Nuraghe (called "Su Nuraxi", as if it were the only one) a thick piece of wood stuck rather high in the main dome of the building was used for C14 dating. Initially it was thought to be "a lever, or tool that could not be extracted after its use by the builders", but the most probable hypothesis is that it was a support to a larger wooden structure, a floor possibly, that helped better utilize the vertical space of the high dome.
I may add that, regerttably, strict scientific methods (and mainly their high costs) are not very popular in Sardinia, so they are less frequently applied then elsewhere... And when they are applied, more likely they are performed by foreign labs.
There are other obstacles, of course: for instance dendrochronology still may not count on a complete referrement series, becouse of the climate, influencing the quality of predominant trees (domestic and wild olive trees cavitate and cannot be used; other trees - such as oaks - where harvested for wood or do not live long enough)...
But we might discuss this later, I hope...
In the Barumini Nuraghe (called "Su Nuraxi", as if it were the only one) a thick piece of wood stuck rather high in the main dome of the building was used for C14 dating. Initially it was thought to be "a lever, or tool that could not be extracted after its use by the builders", but the most probable hypothesis is that it was a support to a larger wooden structure, a floor possibly, that helped better utilize the vertical space of the high dome.