Four Coptic Textiles from the Louvre Collection 14 C Redated after 55 Years

Dating of Coptic textiles performed in the early days of the radiocarbon dating method was revisited. In 1957–1958, Louvre curator and art historian P du Bourguet had 4 Coptic textiles 14 C dated by the Saclay laboratory. The results were rejected, not because of the large standard deviation (>10...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Radiocarbon 2014, Vol.56 (1), p.1-5
Main Authors: van Strydonck, Mark, Bénazeth, Dominique
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Dating of Coptic textiles performed in the early days of the radiocarbon dating method was revisited. In 1957–1958, Louvre curator and art historian P du Bourguet had 4 Coptic textiles 14 C dated by the Saclay laboratory. The results were rejected, not because of the large standard deviation (>100 yr), but because their ages did not support his chronological framework based on typological comparison. Furthermore, textiles with comparable ages were dated several centuries apart. As a result of this investigation, for many decades art historians rejected 14 C as a dating tool for Coptic textiles. Re-examination of the old data and new 14 C analyses revealed that mistakes were made, both in the reporting as in the interpretation of the data and that the textiles are much older than presumed.
ISSN:0033-8222
1945-5755
DOI:10.2458/56.16787