Abstract
The reconstruction of the chronology of historical buildings is a tricky issue, as usually there are not historical documents that allow the assessment of construction phases, and some materials are hardly reliable for the use of dating techniques (e.g., stone). However, in the last two decades, important advances on the use of absolute dating methods on building materials have increased the possibilities of reconstructing building chronologies, although some advances are still scarcely known among archaeologists and architects. Recent studies performed on several kinds of mortars, fired bricks, mud-bricks, and even stone surfaces have shown that it is possible to date them. Both radiocarbon and luminescence dating have been the most frequently used techniques but others such as archaeomagnetism can also be used in some cases. This paper intends to give an overview of the recent achievements on the use of absolute dating techniques for building materials.
Highlights
Mud, wood, or rocks among others are typically naturally occurring materials used in ancient and historical buildings
The most important problems of Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating of mortars are the assessment of the burial equivalent dose, the luminescence sensitivity of quartz grains, and any residual dose remaining due to incomplete zeroing
Some absolute dating methods have been used on building materials as an alternative to reconstruct building histories
Summary
Wood, or rocks among others are typically naturally occurring materials used in ancient and historical buildings. Archaeological studies and physico-chemical analyses are usually performed on them to acquire information on construction materials and phases. One of the main goals in the archaeology of architecture is the reconstruction of the chronology of buildings. This is not difficult if written historical documents exist, but this is uncommon. Beyond the use of relative dating methods (e.g., building stratigraphy), absolute dating techniques are commonly used to obtain the chronology of construction phases through the analysis of some given building materials. The purpose of this work is to provide an updated overview of the state of the art on the use of absolute dating techniques on the different historical construction materials with special attention to the problems that can arise from each material and method
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