An application of obsidian hydration dating to prehistoric sites in Japan

Author(s): Yuichi Nakazawa; Fumito Akai

Year: 2015

Summary

Recent progress of obsidian hydration dating (OHD) notably in accurate estimates of effective hydration temperature (EHT) and systematic measurements of rim thickness has now extended the utility of OHD to evaluate chronometric dates of prehistoric sites in various climatic conditions. The present paper discusses the reliability of OHD as the dating method, through a comparison of multiple specimens that were recently obtained from prehistoric sites in temperate and subarctic regions in the Japanese Archipelago. Besides EHT estimation using annual and diurnal variances of the temperature history recorded in weather stations, we will consider underlying factors that potentially affect hydration rates (e.g., site context where dating specimens were obtained, obsidian geochemistry). The present case study will illuminate the aspect to what extent OHD plays a role to provide reliable site dates distributed in different climatic zones and geological background.

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Cite this Record

An application of obsidian hydration dating to prehistoric sites in Japan. Yuichi Nakazawa, Fumito Akai. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 397890)

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Keywords

Geographic Keywords
East/Southeast Asia

Spatial Coverage

min long: 66.885; min lat: -8.928 ; max long: 147.568; max lat: 54.059 ;