Dating ancients by lead isotope analysis

Here's a nice scientificalistic article about isotope analysis used to date coins by fingerprinting the ores.

Cool stuff if you're interested in that sort of thing...

http://esciencenews.com/articles/20...ncient.coins.could.be.worth.their.weight.gold

 

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Thanks for this. I had thought this might be a viable means to decipher some of the ancient Indian silver coins... more so for silver (ore) provenance than actual age. I have done isotopic research with my work, and I know it is not a cheap analysis to mess around with numismatics.

 

It sounds like it won't be long before we can attribute every cull.

 

The key piece of data in this study is the fingerprint of the mines. Ancient Judaea is an extremely well studied area that is much better documented than others. Without knowing what the isotope signature of every probable source of metal this technique loses most of it's effectiveness.

 

I assume that's part of the technique. The article suggests as much with this sentence...

The problem with these little science blurbs is just that - I would be happy to read 100 pages of it, that goes into great detail.

 

I would have said it, but I think you said it better...Kudos