Abstract
One of the major issues in building archaeology is finding the age of elements and structures discovered. Mortars represent a class of material basically constituted by a mixture of different phases (i.e. binder, aggregates, water) and are widely used for constructive uses and artworks. Current scientific literature regarding the possibility of accurate radiocarbon dating for mortars reports different and still contradictory results. In this study, a new protocol for radiocarbon dating of mortar developed at the Centre for Isotopic Research on Cultural and Environmental heritage (CIRCE) is used to perform 14 C measurements on archaeological mortars coming from three medieval architectures of northern Spain (two churches and the walls of a castle). Results observed will be discussed and compared with independent age estimations (i.e. radiocarbon dating performed on organic materials found in the same study site, archaeological analyses) in order to frame experimental observations in the actual site knowledge by means of a multidisciplinary approach.
Highlights
One of the major issues in building archaeology is to determinate the absolute age of architectural elements and structures discovered during the works
In particular we have studied two churches, Santa Maria in Zornoztegi and San Julian in Aistra, and the walls of the castle of Treviño
Radiocarbon dating of the mortar, according to the procedure presented here, opens new perspectives for the studies of historic architecture
Summary
One of the major issues in building archaeology is to determinate the absolute age of architectural elements and structures discovered during the works. Mortar represents a class of material basically constituted by a mixture of different materials (i.e. binder, aggregates, water) and widely used for constructive uses and artworks. Because of their productive process, mortars preserve the potential to be used for radiocarbon dating and since 1964 (Delibrias & Labeyrie, 1964) several scientists have tested this hypothesis without a clear understanding of the accuracy achievable in the artifact dating
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