Skinflint dating

When a piece of flint is broken to form an artifact, and then buried in sed iment at a site, its outer surface is exposed to a higher beta-particle dos e rate than is experienced by the interior of the flint. A layer about 2 mm thick on each freshly broken surface receives an excess P-dose. The differ ence between the internal accumulated dose and that in the skin can be used to estimate the time elapsed since formation and burial of the artifact. ( C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.