LECTURE

at the University of Chicago, Willard Libby (1908–1980) developed practical ways of using these techniques of “radiometric dating” in archaeology. In 1953, Clair Patterson of the California Institute of Technology used similar “radiometric” techniques to show that the solar system was about 4.5 billion years old. These and other new dating techniques, most developed since the Second World War, provide the evidence for the chronologies we use in this course.

We have seen that science makes strong, but not absolute, claims on the truth, and that its claims are based on evidence. We have also seen how, in just the last century, revolutionary new dating techniques have provided the evidence needed to construct a rigorous account of the past extending back well before the appearance of written records.

Essential Reading

Supplementary Reading

Questions to Consider

Calder, Timescale. Christian, Maps of Time, app. 1.

Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything. Toulmin and Good eld, The Discovery of Time.

1. How can nonscientists best decide whether or not to trust the claims made by modern science?

2. How did the evolution of modern dating techniques, such as radiometric dating, transform our understanding of the past?