How can archaeologists date back and determine the approximate age of some items (for example, a 40,000-year-old skull)? How accurate are those prognosis?

Answer 1

How can archaeologists date back and determine the approximate age of some items (for example, a 40,000-year-old skull)? How accurate are those prognosis?

First, archaeological findings are not considered prognosis. They are considered just that finding based upon:

(1) evidence that has been carefully and scientifically collected.

(2) Analysis that follows scientific steps which lead to,

(3) Facts-findings which provide archaeology (and many other disciplines) with accurate data and information.

How is this all dated, or the approximate age of an artifact is provided. There are several methodologies which the Archaeologist chooses before seeking evidence of cultural remains through survey and excavation of sites.

The first assumption is that the patterning observed in surviving human remains (artifacts, fossils, and material culture) reflect the patterning of cultures that produced them. The three main objectives (or aims) of archaeology are:

(a) the study of cultural history

(b) the reconstruction of past life-ways

(3) the explanation of cultural processes.

Then an archaeological record is created through amassing date via survey and excavation which is recorded at thousands of archaeological sites and artifacts (form), each of which has a precise context in space and time.

The evidence collected is then dated using several methodologies which are: Cultural Deposition, Stratigraphy, and Dating techniques:

a. Relative dating

b. Chronometric dating

c. Radiocarbon dating

d. Radiocarbon dating

Scientific method is applied to all evidence collected, analyzed, and findings are published.

(retrieved from Peniston 2015)