fact that, conveniently enough, this arbitrary convention still left the first author slot to be occupied by the more (institutionally) senior member of the group. In spite of that, this paper would never had come to fruition if it was not for Dustin Stoltz's vision, perseverance, and hard work (especially when it comes to assembling the citation data) and as such he deserves special thanks. Dustin was the first one to "see" a paper where the first author just saw a set of smart points usable to impress students in a seminar context. Dustin herded all of the cats, and made the seemingly quixotic attempt to write a seven-authored theory piece seem like a breeze. Of course, it was the intellectual input of all authors that ultimately made the paper more than the sum of its separate parts although we will spare you tired emergence analogies.

The chronometric dating of ceramic objects is normally achieved by thermoluminscence techniques (TL). Here we report both TL and a radiocarbon measurements on a Chinese earthenware hu jar (Harvard University Art Museums LTL1.2001.23 a,b). TL dates were obtained from earthenware core samples using established methods. The radiocarbon date was obtained from an organic coating present on the jar surface. The coating was preliminarily identified as urushi by a comparison of its FTIR absorption spectrum to absorption spectra obtained from modern and ancient lacquer standards. The material was found to be insoluble in a variety of solvents, mineral acids, and bases. Combustion and elemental analysis revealed that 64% of the coating mass was carbon. C measurement by AMS was carried out on a 3.9 mg sample of chemically cleaned lacquer. This measurement generated a date of 2191 ± 38 BP. Calibration of this measurement placed the age of the jar between 390BC and 160 BC at the 95% confidence interval. The calibrated radiocarbon date corroborated the TL measurement placing the jar at between 2400 and 1500 years old (400 BC to 500 AD). These findings also agreed with stylistic evidence that the jar was produced during the Western Han period (206 BC-AD 9). The literature on urushi composition, its pigment compatibility, its high carbon content, its apparent chemical stability, and the small sample required for C-accelerator mass spectrometry suggests that other lacquer-coated objects might be dated using a similar approach.

No abstract

No abstract