radiocarbon dating laboratory: ongoing projects

Organic residues on pottery shards – Mark Van Strydonck – IRPA/KIK
Project in the framework of the research campaign Stimulation of the Research in the Federal Scientific Institutes – 01/01/2006-31/12/2009

This project returns to the origins of dinnerware in pottery, in the 6th and 5th millennium BC. The oldest ceramics from Low-Belgium are attributed to the Swifterbant culture. But how did these hunters-gatherers-fishermen learn about the use and the fabrication of ceramics? The precise dating of retrieved ceramics can help to answer that question. The datings realized thus far have always been indirect and of limited reliability: they concerned organic fragments found in the same archaeological environment as the ceramics. Performing C14 dating on the ceramics themselves and on the traces of cooked food contained therein, is a much more reliable method. Thus the aim of this project is to discover, with the aid of chromatographic methods, the nature and the provenance of products present in these deposits, by way of determining with certainty the origin of the prepared food.

See also the article published in Science Connection, 15, February 2007, p. 18-21

Dated Saints – Mark Van Strydonck – IRPA/KIK and VIOE – Long-term project

To appreciate the importance for Western European Culture, both historic and actual, of saints and their hagiographies, it suffices to think of the provenance of e.g. first names or holidays. Unfortunately textual sources about saints often are unreliable. Hence this study takes another point of departure, namely objective measurements on  remnants of saints. A distinction can be drawn between local saints and saints that were known by the whole of Christianity and whose remnants and relics have often been the object of a cult. The religious institutions that currently preserve many of these objects show sign of a change in mentality in which the idea of the saint, as evoked by the relic, is deemed more important than the authenticity of the relic. This approach is similar to the medieval outlook. Thus, their eventual unmasking as ‘fake’ being less of an issue, more and more relics are being made available for research. While similar projects strictly limit themselves to an absolute dating of the relics, this research succeeds in revealing a pattern that provides an insight in our ancestors’ society and way of thinking.

 Publication:
- Mark Van Strydonck, Mathieu Boudin et al., Relieken: echt of vals?, Leuven, 2006

Dating research of textiles from the Nile Valley from the first millennium AC - Mark Van Strydonck - KIK, Musée du Louvre, Katoennatie, Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis – Long term project

In the research on Coptic textiles the use of radiocarbon dating constitutes a fairly new development. This long time reservedness mainly followed from the method’s imprecision when performed on textiles as well as the damage caused by sample taking. The latter problem was solved by the introduction of AMS measurement while the lack of accuracy gets put into perspective if one considers art history’s chronological margin. The carbon dating method only allows to determine when the used material was cut off from the carbon cycle. Since in the case of textiles the interval between the extraction of the raw material and the processing is rather small compared to other materials, the application of carbon dating on textiles allows to determine with relatively high precision the period of fabrication of certain textiles or techniques of decoration or the chronology of style trends.

Dating research and palodiet study in the scope of archaeological research in the Western Mediterranean region - Mark Van Strydonck – IRPA/KIK, Museu de Menorca, Universidad Islas Baleares, Institut Mediterrani d’Estudis Avançats, Patrimoni Arqueològic i Cultural sl., El Museu Arqueològic de Son Fornés, El Museu d’història de Manacor, as well as several private partners – Long-term project

The broad scientific activity on the Balearic Islands of IRPA/KIK, which among other things has performed 70% of all carbon datings on indigenous material, is a house with many chambers. Thus the isotopic analysis on collagen and carbonate of pets and humans, in the framework of a study on the importance of animal husbandry, agriculture and fishery within the food economy of the Balearic Islands’ prehistoric communities, revealed important new data about the eating habits of the habitants. The combined results of carbon dating, astronomy and archaeological excavations have demonstrated that on the site of the Son Mas-sanctuary on Mallorca a so-called observation stone was oriented towards where until around 1700 BC the Southern Cross Constellation was situated (In antiquity the Southern Cross could be seen from the Mediterranean region. At present, as a result of the changes in the rotation angle of the earth’s axis, this is no longer the case). This is the first clue of a possible astronomical orientation of a Pretalayot monument on the Balearic Islands. Another result of carbon dating research is the discovery of drastic changes in burial practices, the building of talayots and sanctuaries around the 9th century BC, a period of climate change which in several continents left traces of cultural change and migration.

Prehistorische vestigings- en landgebruiksystemen in Zandig Vlaanderen (Noord-West België): een diachronische en geo-archeologische benadering (Prehistoric settlement and land use systems in Sandy Flanders (North-Western Belgium: a diachronical and geoarchaeological approach)) – Mark Van Strydonck – IRPA/KIK and UGent (Ghent University)

Project in the framework of a Concerted Research Action of the UGent – 2008-2011

This interdisciplinary study focuses on the asymmetric distribution of pre- and protohistoric sites (from around 12.000 BC until the coming of the Romans) in Sandy Flanders by way of a paleolandscape approach, with the aim of making a reconstruction of the prehistoric land use.