Basic study on possibility of radiocarbon dating of bronze implement

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24650586
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Cultural property science
• Research Institution: Nagoya University
• Principal Investigator: ODA Hirotaka 名古屋大学, 年代測定総合研究センター, 助教 (30293690)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YAMADA Tetsuya (財)元興寺文化財研究所, 研究部, 研究員 (80261212)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): YSUKAMOTO Toshio (財)元興寺文化財研究所, 研究部, 総括研究員 (30241269) ; KATO Takenori 名古屋屋大学, 年代測定総合研究センター, 准教授 (90293688)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 年代測定 / 青銅器 / 緑青

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Verdigris is rust produced on the surface of bronze implement. The reactants are Cu which contains bronze and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When verdigris is formed once, it will be a close film and restrains generation of new rust. Therefore, verdigris should preserve carbon of the atmosphere when it was formed. The purpose of this study is to prove the possibility of radiocarbon dating of bronze. In the first, by preparatory experiments, we clarified that verdigris releases carbon dioxide by heating at 250℃ for 1 hour. Then, we applied the extraction method for archaeological samples of known age and radiocarbon ages were measured. The archaeological ages includes their calibrated radiocarbon ages. The result of archaeological samples shows that verdigris preserves carbon of the atmosphere when it was formed and verdigris is a suitable sample for radiocarbon dating.

Free Research Field

年代測定