| dendrochronology | The study of the annual growth rings of trees as a dating technique to build chronologies.
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| chronology | A framework of time to show the order of events, a dated sequence of events in the past.
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| relative dating | Method of dating that determines whether an object or layer is older or younger than another.
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| absolute dating | Method of dating that can provide an age in calendar years.
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| calendar | A system for organizing time into repeatable and predictable units.
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| varves | Annual layers of deposits in cold-water lakes.
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| obsidian hydration dating | A dating technique which relies on the accumulation of a hydration (weathering) layer on the fresh surface of obsidian objects.
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| radiocarbon | A radioactive isotope of carbon (14C, carbon-14); an important dating technique in archaeology.
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| radiopotassium, or potassium-argon, dating | Dating technique for old samples that is based on half-life for decay of potassium into argon in new rock.
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| uranium series dating | An isotopic dating method based on radioactive decay of uranium.
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| thermoluminescence (TL) dating | Technique for absolute dating based on the principle of the rate of accumulation of TL after heating, used with burned flint and clay.
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| electron spin resonance (ESR) | A dating method based on trapped electrons in tooth enamel, assuming the accumulation rate is constant.
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| archaeomagnetism | A dating technique based on the migration of the earth's north pole, known for the last 1000 years.
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| magnetic polarity | A dating technique based on shifts in the location of the earth's magnetic pole.
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| pithouse | A dwelling constructed over a hole in the ground; semisubterranean structure; structure built on a semisubterranean foundation.
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| lake dwellings | Archaeological remains of settlements once thought to have stood over the water on raised pilings, but now known to have been situated along former shorelines, now submerged.
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| radioactivity | The process of decay of unstable isotopes over time through the spontaneous emission of radiation from the nucleus of an atom.
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| half-life | Conventional rate for radioactivity based on the time period for the decay of half the unstable isotopes in a known quantity of material.
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| Geiger counter | A device for measuring radioactive emissions.
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| accelerator mass spectrometers (AMS) | Huge scientific instruments used for sorting and counting isotopes. AMS dating allows much smaller samples to be used in archaeology.
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| calibration | Correction of radiocarbon dates for the difference between calendar years and radiocarbon years.
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| wiggle matching | A technique for finding precise dates using a series of radiocarbon dates and the irregularities in the calibration curve.
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| bipedalism | The human method of locomotion, walking on two legs; one of the first human characteristics to distinguish the early hominins, as opposed to quadrupedalism, walking on four legs.
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| kurgans | Burial mounds in the steppe region of eastern Europe.
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