Like a layer cake or slice of lasagna, a site’s lower layers are assumed to be older than those that lie above them. In stratigraphy, archaeologists assume that sites undergo stratification over time, leaving older layers beneath newer ones. Relative techniques were developed earlier in the history of archaeology as a profession and are considered less trustworthy than absolute ones. Photograph by James King-Holmes, Alamy Relative dating
The AMS will measure the relative proportions of carbon isotopes to determine the objects age. Small tubes containing CO2 derived from artifacts are placed in an accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS).