Most accurate dating method

8.1: Dating Methods

The ability to precisely date, or identify the age of an object, can teach us when Earth formed, help reveal past climates and tell us how early humans lived. So how do scientists do it? Radiocarbon dating is the most common method by far, according to experts. This method involves measuring quantities of carbon, a radioactive carbon isotope — or version of an atom with a different number of neutrons. Carbon is ubiquitous in the environment. After it forms high up in the atmosphere, plants breathe it in and animals breathe it out, said Thomas Higham, an archaeologist and radiocarbon dating specialist at the University of Oxford in England. Related: What's the oldest living thing alive today? While the most common form of carbon has six neutrons, carbon has two extra. That makes the isotope heavier and much less stable than the most common carbon form.

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Imagine someone telling you a story where all the important events happened in the wrong order. It might be confusing, or even make no sense at all. Being able to tell how old things are and put them in the right order is one of the most important skills archaeologists have. We call this skill dating because it is how we organize our discoveries in time, like dates on a calendar. Archaeologists use two kinds of dating methods: relative dating and absolute dating. In relative dating , we determine which things are older or younger based on their relationships. For example, we know from geology that soil layers near the surface of the ground are usually younger than those deeper down.

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After excavating a site, one of the first questions to answer relates to time. Much of the meaning that can be inferred from a site comes from the context—when the site was used and when the various artifacts collected were made, used, and left behind. It is a straightforward question to ask, but one that has long been difficult to answer. Newer, more advanced dating techniques now allow archaeologists to establish when sites were occupied and artifacts were made.

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Dating Methods

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