RADIOCARBON DATES FROM THE OXFORD AMS SYSTEM: ARCHAEOMETRY DATELIST 3

This third list of accelerator dates includes material dated in the same period as datelist 2 (Gillespi?et al. 1985) and subsequently. The dates have been achieved by the same methods as described there.     

… OF SHERDS AND SOIL AND SEALING LAYERS, OF COBBLING AND COINS…

Summary. From 1985 to 1987 an experiment was conducted alongside an excavation to examine the effect of trampling on cobbled layers, and to see if the movement of small objects could change their stratigraphic relationships. An experimental area was excavated and backfilled with soil and a cobbled layer containing plastic markers, flower pot sherds and coins. The area, part of a path, was subjected to daily trampling, and was excavated after seventeen months, using normal excavation methods; all the soil was dry sieved. The results show varying recovery rates and horizontal movements for different types of object, and demonstrate the need for further investigation of the causes and implications of differential movement of buried objects.     

IDENTIFYING THE PLANT ORIGIN OF ARTISTS' YELLOW LAKE PIGMENTS BY ELECTROSPRAY MASS SPECTROMETRY

Dyes containing flavonoids are found in yellow lake pigments used as artists' materials. Pre‐treating a sample of a flavonoid‐based lake pigment with an acidic ion exchange resin followed by reversed‐phase HPLC electrospray mass spectrometry enables the identification of key diagnostic yellow compounds, even when the pigment is bound in paint media. Reference raw plant materials of weld and buckthorn berries were also treated similarly for comparison with the lake pigments derived from these plants. This method is suitable for microsamples and thus suitable for analysis of samples that can be ethically removed from works of art in the course of their conservation. The flavonoid content is analysed and plant origins are suggested for yellow lake samples taken from Reclining Tiger by Jean‐Baptiste Oudry and the 1893 version of The Scream by Edvard Munch.     

Jefferson's Legacy to the Supreme Court: Freedom of Religion

Except for Rhode Island, each of the thirteen American colonies created some form of established religion. The English venturists who undertook settlements in New England and Virginia simply assumed that religion would be inextricably tied to their colonial enterprises. ¹ The 1606 charter creating the Virginia colony required that all ministers preach Christianity that followed the “doctrine, rights, and religion now professed and established within the realme of England”—in other words, the Church of England. ² To bolster the struggling Jamestown settlement, in 1610–11, Sir Thomas Dale promulgated “Articles, Lawes, and Orders, Divine, Politic, and Martiall for the Colony in Virginia.” Clergymen were to read “Dale's Laws,” as they were labeled, to assemblies every Sabbath. The thirty‐seven rules included eight that specifically referred to God and prohibited impiety, blasphemy, sacrilege, and irreverence toward preachers or ministers. The sixth law was particularly notable for its strict religious requirements and harsh penalties for violations: “Every man and woman duly twice a day … shall … repair unto the Church to divine service upon pain of losing his or her days allowance for the first omission, for the second to be whipped, and for the third to be condemned to the Gallies for six months. Likewise no man or woman shall dare to violate or break the Sabbath by any gaming … but duly sanctify and observe the same, both himself and his family, by preparing themselves at home with private prayer, that they may be better fitted for the public according to the commandments of God and the orders of our Church. …” ³ Colonists faced the death penalty after the third offense of missing morning and afternoon Sunday devotional services.     

RADIOCARBON DATES FROM THE OXFORD AMS SYSTEM: ARCHAEOMETRY DATELIST 2

In an effort to make measurements readily available as soon as possible, dates from the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator will now be published regularly in Archaeometry. These datelists will not be a substitute for final publication in Radiocarbon, which is desirable for all dates, but are intended to serve as a formal interim publication of dates, so that they can be cited.