An Improvement in Preparation of Mortar for Radiocarbon Dating

Abstract

An error source in radiocarbon dating of ancient mortar is dead carbon of limestone mixed in the matrix. To eliminate the influence of limestone the difference in feasibility to react with acid between mortar and limestone is used. Since the rate of reaction depends on grain size use of a well-defined grain size can give a better separation between mortar and limestone. We present results for the grain size dependence of reaction rates for several mortar and limestone samples and discuss the application for dating.