When a scientist dates an object, he uses both absolute and relative dating techniques. Both techniques require examination of all artifacts to arrive at a date for the site and the objects found.
Materials Used in Dating
Stone, bone, pollen, wood, pottery and manufactured items are things used in the dating process.
Relative Dating
Relative dating is to establish a chronology of the site and arrives at a date relative to the objects found around it. Comparing pottery styles to known dated samples, or items found in the same sedimentary layer, would be examples of relative dating.
Absolute Dating
Absolute dating uses radioactive decay rates to establish a date for the site and its artifacts. Radioactive materials decay at known rates. By calculation, the age of what is tested can be determined. The radioactive method's half-life is too short to determine geological era dates.
Other Absolute Dating
Several methods are used for dating old sites and materials. Carbon 14 is the most common method, but several others are just as important, including obsidian testing, tree ring or dendrochronology, thermo-remanent magnetism, thermoluminescence, florine testing, varve counting and pollen analysis.
Overlap
Using absolute and relative dating together helps confirm the accuracy of the tests. This provides crosschecks to insure the most accurate dates possible.
Tags: absolute relative, absolute relative dating, date site, objects found
