New developments in the scientific dating of brick.

Fired clay brick has been widely used in the construction of buildings in many parts of Europe since its introduction by the Romans, and the extremely robust physical properties of fired clay enable bricks to endure within the archaeological record for many centuries, notably as structural elements in standing buildings. Most ancient standing buildings, erected wholly or partially in brick, have undergone alterations since their original construction and consequently usually have a complex history. The current approaches to unravelling building histories have the capability to date the original construction and subsequent alterations to within several years or better where structural analysis combined with searches for documentary evidence and tree-ring dating of timbers is employed. However, for many vernacular buildings, difficulties in dating may arise where documentary evidence has not survived, or may have never existed, where tree-ring dates are not available (such as the replacement of original structural timbers, insufficient number of rings, etc.), and where there is an absence of diagnostic architectural features. In these circumstances the margin of uncertainty in dating may increase by at least several decades, depending on the nature of the available building evidence. This paper discusses the potential of a scientific dating method, luminescence dating, that provides a means of determining the date of manufacture of fired clay brick. Although the luminescence method has become well established in the field of archaeology, it has had limited application to building history. This paper provides a brief introduction to the application of the method and its potential for further development in historic buildings analysis, drawing upon the results of a recent test programme of dating brick from late-medieval and post-medieval English buildings

The Durham TL ceramic dating service

A TL dating service for archaeologists has been established at our laboratory and its viability is being investigated as part of a research project. The service has been structured to cater for the needs of British archaeologists, although we consider that the fundamental approach would be appropriate to most TL dating requirements. Two levels of accuracy are offered in survey dating and dating programmes as part of a two tiered system. In its first year of operation the laboratory has tested over 80 samples and in this paper we discuss the structure of the service and the dates produced

Prehistoric and Historic Landscape Change in Aragón, Spain: Some Results from the Moncayo Archaeological Survey

The Moncayo Archaeological Survey (MAS) was initiated in 2000 to investigate population, economic and environmental change in a study area northwest of Zaragoza in the northeast of Spain. This is an interdisciplinary project which combines landscape archaeology with earth-science methodologies and approaches. Research undertaken during the first four field seasons has concentrated on reconstructing and explaining landscape change, while at the same time cataloguing existing archaeological records and prospecting for previously unknown sites. Two episodes of significant landscape change dating to the Neolithic/Bronze Age and post-medieval period have been identified from the geomorphological record. These are interpreted here as the result of human land-use change: in the prehistoric period from clearance of woodland during the Neolithic and the subsequent expansion of agriculture in the Bronze Age, and in the 19th century from the removal of upland woodland following changes in land ownership and management. Notably, evidence for erosion and deposition was not found for either the Roman or medieval periods when archaeological and historical evidence indicate that local population was at its highest and agriculture at its most intense, nor from the height of the Little Ice Age when climate is thought to have been at its most extreme. Therefore, direct relationships between the intensity of agriculture or climate change and landscape modification are rejected here in favour of a more complex interaction of multiple human and climatic variables. These can only be understood by a combination of high-resolution archaeological survey, geoarchaeological study and chronometric dating