Special Session #9

Dating of archaeological material is a key issue in the archaeological research as it can significantly contribute to determine the age and duration of the human occupation of a site and define the chronology of cultural and economic development of a certain area. A wide variety of established and newly developed archaeometric techniques can offer valuable dating tools and, in some cases, different techniques can be applied to the same artefacts. Moreover, archaeometric applications can offer precious information about the provenance of ancient artifacts, their production techniques and technology characteristics. This special session focuses on the most recent advances on the dating techniques applied in archaeology, inviting studies including methodological approaches, applications and new data. Studies on provenance sourcing of ancient artifacts are also welcome.

Evdokia Tema studied Geology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in Greece, and then proceeded her studies with a Master Degree on Geophysics, obtained on 2003. She moved in Italy for her PhD as MARIE CURIE early career fellow in the frame of the AARCH project "Archaeomagnetic Applications for the Rescue of Cultural Heritage". Since 2007, she works at the Earth’s Science Department, University of Torino.
Her main research field is the investigation, characterization and dating of cultural heritage materials by means of magnetic methods. In particularly, her research is focused on archaeomagnetism, archaeomagnetic dating, provenance studies, ancient production technology, estimation of heating temperatures of archaeological artefacts, and several other archaeomagnetic applications used for the investigation and rescue of the historic, artistic and archaeological Cultural Heritage.

Enzo Ferrara is a researcher at the Italian National Institute of Metrology (INRIM, Torino) – Department of Nanoscience and Materials. He devoted his research activities in Materials Science since 1991 working for the production, characterization and modeling of amorphous, micro- and nano-sized magnetic materials and devices optimized for application-oriented purposes. As well, at INRIM he is involved with issues of metrology at international level related to magnetic measurements. Since 2000, he focused his research on rock magnetic techniques applied for the rescue of the cultural heritage and for geological and environmental studies. As a joined professor, he contribute to lessons in a course on Dating Techniques – Master Degree in Materials Science for Cultural Heritage, University of Turin.