REVIEW AND SOFTWARE ASSESSMENT OF THE RECENT SIMS-SS OBSIDIAN HYDRATION DATING METHOD

Authors

  • IOANNIS LIRITZIS Laboratory of Archaeometry, Dept.of Mediterranean Studies, University of the Aegean 1 Demokratias Ave, Rhodes 85100, Greece
  • THEODORE GANETSOS Dept.of Electronics, Technical Educational Institute (TEJ) of Lamia, Lamia, Greece
  • NIKOLAOS LASKARIS Dept.of Electronics, Technical Educational Institute (TEJ) of Lamia, Lamia, Greece

Keywords:

SIMS, Obsidian, Dating, Suface Saturation, Difusion, Fick's Law, SIMS-SS, Software

Abstract

The hydration dating of obsidian tools employing the recent method of SIMS-SS has been

further re-evaluated with regards to a novel in-house software (using MATLAB) and refinement of the procedure for the location of the surface saturation layer(SS). The latter is defined from a combination of linear regressions (for the determination of the constat concentration level) and two derivatives of the polynomial fitting of the whole and initial sigmoid profile of Concentration versus Hydration depth (x), derived by SIMS. The derivation of age equation is reviewed following a detailed presentation of formulas and prevailed conditions. Four dates are produced with the new software from the Aegean, Mexico and Easter Islands, compared to earlier calculations. In all cases the calculated ages is concordant with the expected archaeological ages.

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Published

2023-07-21

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2005)

Section

Articles