Topics in Preservation Science
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AMS Radiocarbon Dating of Museum Objects
ABOUT THE LECTURE:
Most archaeologists have a working knowledge of radiocarbon dating.
This knowledge is less common among museum curators, conservators and
preservation scientists whose collections may not be defined as archaeological,
but nevertheless contain dateable materials. The National Science Foundation-University
of Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (NFS-Arizona AMS) Laboratory
is the premier center for archaeological radiocarbon dating in the United
States, having performed measurements on the Shroud of Turin, the Dead
Sea Scrolls, the Vinland Map, the Gospel of Judas, and many documents
in private collections. This talk will outline how radiocarbon dating
is performed using AMS, including a discussion of how 14C measurements
are translated into calendar dates. Conventional applications for dating
museum objects will be presented, including the dating of papyrus and
parchment documents. In addition, AMS can be used to detect 20th Century
forgeries of art and artifacts purportedly created before 1955 based
on the detection of atomic bomb-derived 14C, which can, in some cases,
date objects at plus or minus one year's resolution. The application
of this approach to works on paper and photographs will be discussed.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dr. Greg Hodgins is an Assistant Research Scientist, and an Assistant
Professor of Anthropology, at the National Science Foundation -- Arizona
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (NSF-Arizona AMS) Laboratory, University
of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University
of Toronto, a Master of Science in Biochemistry from Cornell University,
and a PhD from Oxford University's Research Laboratory for Archaeology
and the History of Art. He was a recipient of a Mellon Foundation Fellowship
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Samuel H. Kress Foundation and Wingate Foundation Fellowships
in Conservation Science at Oxford University. Dr. Hodgins's research
focuses on the development of new methods and applications of 14C measurements,
including compound-specific radiocarbon dating, radiocarbon dating of
architectural mortars and plasters, the development of 14C methods in
forensic science, and radiocarbon dating of museum objects.