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Archeology: How is ivory statues age determined?
It says that archeologists in Germany have discovered an ivory statue that is 35,000 years old. I am interested to know, how can the age of the statue be identified this way? What I mean is, the ivory may be 35000 years old and the statue made recently. How do the scientists tell (by carbon dating) the difference between the age of the ivory and when the statue was made?
1 Answer
- KTDykesLv 71 decade agoFavourite answer
The stratigraphic situation has long been studied at localities in Germany yielding human remains, be they bones, rubbish or implements and, as the excavation of that statue was very recent (I think it was 2008), precise details are known concerning exactly from which level it came from.
<<What I mean is, the ivory may be 35000 years old and the statue made recently.>>
The layer it came out from is about that old.
<<How do the scientists tell (by carbon dating) the difference between the age of the ivory and when the statue was made?>>
Carbon dating is sometimes possible, given the presence of the right sort of remains. That's one way dates have been obtained for the various strata. I don't know if it directly applies in this case.
If you really feel the need to look into this more closely, then get hold of the most recent edition of Nature. That's where the original paper on this thing has just been published. Check the article itself and any references cited for details on how the age has been established.