jahnatan t1_jd1vima wrote on March 21, 2023 at 6:06 AM

Reply to comment by ArchaeoHugh in Saudi Arabia stone ruins were pilgrimage sites, where an ancient cult gathered to sacrifice animals about 7,000 years ago by marketrent

hi, thanks for the open questions :)

I'm not sure if I follow how/why the sites were dated 7,000 years old. what was the technique to determine the dating ?

ArchaeoHugh t1_jd2d0nh wrote on March 21, 2023 at 10:19 AM

So we have performed Carbon 14 testing on the animal remains and charcoal present inside. They all came back around 5300–4900 BCE- so roughly 7000 years ago. We have also done a technique called OSL- which is where you can test the last time a grain of sand saw sunlight. So you get sediment from under the structure, that was trapped when it was built- and determine the age pretty accurately.