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RE: How human carbon emissions mess with archaeology
A wonderful blog, as usual. What if the cave was sealed...would that protect the artifacts/paintings from the influences you describe? I read about one such cave in France. The article I read states that the cave was sealed after last use. Don't know if that means it stayed sealed all these years.
I am resteeming, for greater visibility...
Hi @agmoore! Great to see you again! Once the organism stopped exchanging carbon with its environment (the death of the tree of which they made the charcoal), it does not matter in what atmosphere it is. So the closing of the cave would not influence samples (such as the charcoal of the paintings) already present. After the closing however, and when the cave is sealed from the environment, its atmosphere can not be assumed to have the same C14 ratio as the outside atmosphere. So samples dating from after the closing cannot directly be carbon dated.
Thanks for sharing, I appreciate it!
Thank you for that explanation. I hope everyone on Steemit reads this. Your blogs are always gems.