An interim investigation of the potential of vibrational spectroscopy for the dating of cultural objects in ivory

Abstract

Radiocarbon dating of ivory requires destructive sampling on a scale not always compatible with the requirements of the preservation and curation of cultural objects. The development of a minimally-destructive dating technique is urgently needed. Raman spectroscopy can detect the changes in the organic and inorganic molecular components of ivory that occur with time. It has been suggested that these vibrational spectroscopic changes could be used to assess the relative date of mammoThivories, assuming that the state of preservation of the ivory is directly related to its age. This paper tests this assumption with specimens of mammoThivory of known date and burial environment and concludes that the vibrational spectra of ivory cannot in general be used to deduce the age of the specimen.