AMS radiocarbon dating of mortar: The case study of the medieval UNESCO site of Modena

Mortar OSL and brick TL dating: The case study of the UNESCO world heritage site of Modena

“…This paper illustrates the TL and OSL dating results of nine samples of bricks and mortars from the Cathedral and the Ghirlandina Tower in the framework of the main hypotheses about the construction phases (Peroni, 1999, Labate 2010, Silvestri, 2013, and a comparison with the presently available radiocarbon data (Lubritto et. al., 2015).…”

“…In Fig. 2 the ages of all bricks and mortars samples that gave reliable results are reported together with the only available radiocarbon dating (Lubritto et al, 2015).…”

“…This approach is useful when matching multiple dates and prior knowledge about a site. In this case, the known connections between the building phases were used as likelihood parameters integrating prior hypothesis and dating results, including the only available radiocarbon date (MG1 mortar, Lubritto et al, 2015). The results are shown in The application of the Bayesian statistics allowed us to narrow the probability density curves providing a more reliable building chronology for the Ghirlandina Tower.…”

“…The historical documents date the foundation of the Cathedral (1099) and the completion of the Ghirlandina bell tower (1319), while there are conflicting interpretations on the dates of the construction phases (Peroni, 1999 2013). This work is part of a wide project for the scientific characterization of the construction materials of the monuments (Lugli et al, 2010, Lugli et al 2011 andLugli et al, in press), including an AMS radiocarbon dating campaign on lime mortars (Lubritto et al 2015), some of which are still in progress.…”

Application of different protocols and age-models in OSL dating of earthen mortars

“…Even radiocarbon could be applied to mortar, dating the carbon dioxide absorbed by the material structure from the atmosphere during the crystallization process (Heinemeier et al, 1997;Konow and Lindroos, 1997;Ringbom, 1997). A number of experiments have been carried out to satisfactorily extract calcite from mortar and date it with AMS (Lubritto et al, 2015;Lindroos et al, 2014;Ringbom et al, 2014;Pesce et al, 2012;Hale et al, 2003) but until now it has not become a routine method, due to the contamination of the anthropogenic calcite with the geogenic one.…”