Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods

Living Edition
| Editors: W. Jack Rink, Jeroen Thompson

Bones (U-Series)

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6326-5_240-1
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Synonyms

230Th/U dating of bone; U-series disequilibrium dating of bone; U–Th dating of bone

Definition

Uranium-series dating: A geochronological method that uses intermediate decay products in the 238U or 235U radioactive decay chains to measure the length of time required to reach the current state of radioactive disequilibrium from an initial condition.

Bone: A dense, semirigid, porous, calcified connective tissue forming the major portion of the skeleton of most vertebrates consisting of an organic matrix, largely collagen, and a mineral phase of nonstoichiometric carbonate hydroxyapatite Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2.

Introduction

Uranium-series disequilibrium dating of carbonate precipitates provides one of the most precise (and accurate) dating methods for the last 500 ka and has found application in archaeology for dating flowstone floors that cap or bracket archaeological deposits (e.g., Schwarcz and Blackwell 1992) or that are associated with cave paintings (Pike et al. 2012). The...

Keywords

Uranium Concentration Inductively Couple Plasma Mass Spectrometric Burial History Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer Adsorbed Uranium 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of ArchaeologyUniversity of SouthamptonSouthamptonUK