Posted on 08/29/2011 5:03:11 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The basic idea is that there are radioactive elements in rocks. They have half lives.
Slick scientific geniuses can measure the relative amounts of different isotopes left behind by the primary radioactive elements and come up with a date for when the rock was last melted.
Now that's going to give you a nice early date for a whole lot of stuff ~ but the trick here is that when someone cuts the rock, "weathering begins" on a new surface. Again, there are radioactive isotopes there. The isotopes for different elements weather at different rates (inasmuch as they have different chemical characteristics), so, one more time, really, really, really smart scientific superscientists can figure out how long the cut rock has been aging at the surface.
A far easier method is to find some biological remains at the site, do a radiocarbon 14 test on part of it, and there you have it ~ but that only goes back a few tens of thousands of years, and with a question about cut stone, it'll only tell you when it was put in place, not when it was cut.
When it comes to cut stone these days the archaeologists are very interested in when things were cut ~
NOTE: All of this stuff is expensive to do.
The radioisitope dating I can believe, and the C-14 dating.
But a building stone in the Kaabal - where did it start out, when was it cut, was it used in another structure first?
Weathering, without a complete history, not of the stucture, but of the stone, is nonsense.
Although I do recall one case where a monastary was dated by the wear on the front step ... average number of monks, four masses a day...
You then compare that surface to the weathered surface.
What I'm afraid has happened to virtually all the stones in the Kaaba is that they were repolished in more recent times.
BTW, if you think you can just haul a big old stone out of the Kaaba and cut it in two.......... you’d have to be the King of Araby to get away with it.
Not even he could do it.
Totally agree with your suggestion... Very nice post and good information here... Thanks for posting that...
I had to revisit it, this didn’t look familiar *at all* — anyway, thanks!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.