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Re: orion AMS dating


  Are there any other archaeologists on this list that can support the
materialIs there any archaeologists on this list that can further support
the material I present here  concerning C14 tests and archaeology. 
  This past year I earned an MA in Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology, I
even got honors. Lord only knows how. I wrote my thesis on the Tobiads and
Arak el Emir, but originally I wanted to to my thesis on the social
stratification of the Judean Province. When I presented my proposal to a
possible promoter at a dinner party, he asked about my sources. One of my
sources was to be the DSS. He asked about my dating of the scrolls in
relation to the C14 tests. I stated that my timing of the scrolls was OK
with the C14 tests, and we continued to have a very confused discussion
about this matter. 
  It appears that our Geomorphologist had been ease dropping on our
discussion, as the next day in class he discussed calberated and
uncalberated C14 test results. Not to get into too much detail, most
people, including archaeologist, do not know what they are talking about
when in comes to this issue. He seems to have ridiculed the use of the C14
tests on the DSS, a very late find archaeologicaly, and insisted that a
bad pottery date was better than a good C14 date. I am not sure how the
tests were done on the DSS as I have not read yet the published results in
the journal Radiocarbon, but we are dealing with material that by
definition could be plus or minus hundreds of years in any direction. C14
is generally used in archaeology only on prehistoric sites, and rarely on
sites where a relative chronology can be established by the material
remains, such as pottery. It is very dangerous to use it on later sites 
(after the PPN), especially on sites as late as Qumran. 
  Are there any studies published discussing the typologies of the pottery
found in each of the caves and the settlement in relation to other sites
with similiar forms of pots? And on the nusmismatics, if any coins at all
were found? For that matter, where can I find the excavation reports?
Here is the key to dating this material, not the C14 tests. Leave that
science to the prehistorians.   

Bradley Harrison
LULeuven