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12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

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Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#53

I am always curious to know how they determine the date of historical artifacts? Anyone here can throw some light?

One technique is radiocarbon dating:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating

EDIT: For artefacts made entirely out of stone, you can date objects in the sediment around them to get an approximation.

Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#54
There must be so much more underground in that region waiting to be discovered. For instance less than ten miles south is the town of Kisas, about which wikipedia says: "It is built on top of an old archaeological mound (höyük) which has not been excavated because it lies completely under the town."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C4%B1sas,_Haliliye

Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#56

I am always curious to know how they determine the date of historical artifacts? Anyone here can throw some light?

One technique is radiocarbon dating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating EDIT: For artefacts made entirely out of stone, you can date objects in the sediment around them to get an approximation.

But that only works for organic material. Not stone.

Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#57
post #3

The last couple of pictures, of the eyes and the bird, are really neat. Göbeklitepe continues to provide interesting results. It's kind of comforting and exciting that we have so much yet to uncover about the past.

If I remember correctly only a small portion of the site was actually excavated mostly to preserve everything from erosion.

Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One technique is radiocarbon dating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating EDIT: For artefacts made entirely out of stone, you can date objects in the sediment around them to get an approximation.

But that only works for organic material. Not stone.

The article says there were traces of pigment that could be dated. There are other techniques related to the layers of sediment or other clues. I think with a site like this they don't need to date every object. If they can gather enough data points they know when the site was in use. It's technically possible that the statue stone is older and was brought to the site and we might never know, but it's just highly unlikely.

Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#60

There must be so much more underground in that region waiting to be discovered. For instance less than ten miles south is the town of Kisas, about which wikipedia says: "It is built on top of an old archaeological mound (höyük) which has not been excavated because it lies completely under the town." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C4%B1sas,_Haliliye

And what may have been destroyed and will forever be forgotten.

This region is only a couple miles north of Raqqa, which was an ISIS stronghold only a couple years ago, and they destroyed innumerable historical artifacts.

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