On the effect of organic carbon on rehydroxylation (RHX) dating

Scientific dating is an invaluable tool to understand the development of human civilizations from prehistoric to historic times. Ceramics is the most abundant material recovered from archaeological excavations, but a satisfactory scientific dating method is still lacking. So called rehydroxylation (RHX) dating promises precise age information, but the validity of the method still has to be proven. We have investigated one possible obstacle imposed by the presence of organic carbon in the samples. Such a contamination can lead to significant deviations of the dating result. The amount of CO2 released from the following samples was determined: A medieval clay brick from Alkoven, Austria; two authentic archaeological samples from the Iron Age from Megiddo, Israel; a 1600 AD earthenware sherd from Enkhuizen, Netherlands, which had been successfully dated with RHX at another laboratory. We investigated several possibilities to remove such contamination.