Assessment Questions 2.4

Radiocarbon dating relies on the decay of carbon-14 in organic materials. Once an organism dies, the 14C in its remains decays at a fixed rate, allowing the determination of the time elapsed since death.

Dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, involves analyzing annual growth rings in trees. Overlapping living and dead tree ring sequences create a master sequence used to date archaeological sites with wood samples.

Luminescence dating measures trapped energy in archaeological materials due to natural radioactive decay in surrounding soil. It includes thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) methods.