Dating Monument
B3
Sample
9 from fireplace FP2, collected in 1999 in square E/3-4, provided about
400 grams of charcoal. It was sent to Beta Analytic Inc. in Miami,
Florida, for conventional radiocarbon dating. The dating result of this
analysis received the laboratory code Beta-133584 and the result range
was 320 ± 60 years B.P. Calibration to calendar years was delivered by
the laboratory:
2 sigma range:
1445 – 1665 calendar years A.D. (probability = 95 %);
1 sigma range:
1480 – 1650 calendar years A.D. (probability = 68 %).
The
probability curve of the calibration result (Fig. 51) reveals three
probability peaks (at 1525, 1560, and 1630 A.D. cal.) The dating and
calibration results let us assume that monument B3 was built sometime
during the second half of the 16th century A.D.
Fig.
51
This
date is perfectly acceptable in terms of building technique and
archaeological assemblage. Although we retrieved also great number of
charcoal samples during campaign 2000, none of them had a better
contextual setting than sample 9 collected in 1999. We thus felt it was
unnecessary to make further expensive dating essays, considering moreover
that comparative dated archaeological structures and materials are
momentarily absent in the Bhutanese historical record. In the meanwhile,
the subsidiary charcoal samples collected during the two campaigns are
stored at the project head office in Switzerland and are available for
future analyses.
