Braden Cordivari

16 October 2026

The SGS Beta-SAS Radiocarbon Dating Award supports the creative use of radiocarbon dating. The 2026 winner, Simone Dilaria (Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Padua), used the award for his project "Burning the Sea: 14C dating for Early Coral and Shell Calcination in Sardinia.”

Simone reports on the results of the analysis below:

This project investigates an exceptional stratigraphic context discovered in the suburban periphery of the ancient city of Nora, Sardinia. Excavations revealed a pit for lime slaking cut directly into a natural alluvial clay deposit overlying the bedrock. Crucially, this lime pit is stratigraphically cut by a Phoenician cist tomb dated to the mid-seventh century BCE based on its burial assemblage, establishing a definitive terminus ante quem for the lime-production activities. Archaeometric examination revealed that the lime was produced through the calcination of mollusk shells alongside an unusually high concentration of coral fragments. While shell calcination is attested in later Classical periods, the intentional calcination of coral is entirely unprecedented in the Mediterranean archaeological record. To establish an absolute chronological framework for this milestone in ancient pyrotechnology, the SGS Beta-SAS Radiocarbon Dating Award supported the AMS radiocarbon dating of an uncalcined coral residue, designated sample CORAL_3, embedded within the lime paste.

Assemblage of unburnt coral residues

Analyzed sample of coral

The radiocarbon analysis conducted by Beta Analytic on a coral sample (CORAL_3 / Beta-818657) yielded a very surprising result: a conventional radiocarbon age of 41,690 ± 650 BP, which calibrates to approximately 44,000 cal BP (Upper Paleolithic). While this date does not directly reflect the protohistoric operational phase of the lime-slaking pit, which is stratigraphically sealed by a mid-7th century BCE Phoenician tomb, the result is analytical robust and opens up a remarkably intriguing scientific scenario. Rather than harvesting living coral from active reefs, the ancient lime-burners were apparently collecting dead, subfossil coral fragments from beach deposits or the seabed (perhaps retrieved during fishing activities) to use as raw material for lime production. This unexpected outcome provides novel insights into ancient raw-material selection and pyrotechnological practices. 

Result of the C14 dating

To further clarify the deposit's chronological framework and confirm this sourcing strategy, Simone and his colleagues plan to proceed with radiocarbon dating on the remaining samples from the context, including the Murex shell and additional coral fragments.

The results of the project and of the 14C dating will be presented in the poster "Turning the Sea to Lime: Coral and Mollusk Shell Calcination in Phoenician Nora (Sardinia)" at the XI International Congress of Phoenician Studies (Valletta in Malta, 9-13 November 2026).

Congratulations again to Simone, and our warmest thanks to SGS Beta for supporting this innovative and interesting research!

Braden Cordivari

07 October 2026

Our latest Member Spotlight is on Jayde Hirniak, Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, and 2024 winner of the SAS Student and ECR Research Support Award.

Jayde investigates modern human origins through the impact of catastrophic events on human societies through geochemical and geoarchaeological methods including tephrochronology and cryptotephra analysis, silcrete sourcing, site formation processes. Jayde’s dissertation research used tephrochronology to link archaeological and environmental records throughout South Africa and assess the impact of volcanic eruptions on past populations by investigating for the first time in this region the geochemical make up of volcanic material, while her further postdoctoral research expands on this work through offering novel methodological advancements.

Jayde is passionate about working in the field and teaching and considers mentoring young students as very important but also fun. In her own words “when I am in the field, I don’t feel like I am working and it is when I am most creative.” Jayde finds there is something special about visiting the sites one often reads about and get to be a part of the data collection process. If Jayde had a time travel machine she would go back to the Western Cape of South Africa to observe how people lived and see if we are interpreting the archaeological record correctly. Of course, with the caveat of being able to come back! When not in the lab, Jayde enjoys the mountains, typically on a bike.

Get in touch! SAS members can always highlight their research through our Spotlight program: www.socarchsci.org/communications/sas-spotlights

Braden Cordivari

28 September 2026

Braden Cordivari

28 September 2026

Happy fall! September’s Executive Board Reading Recommendation comes from SAS VP for Social Media Vana Orfanou. Vana has selected a recently-published paper in Journal of Archaeological Science by J. Montes Landa and colleagues, titled “Towards a new history of bronze making: Explaining the selection of tin bronze alloying techniques across prehistoric N.E. Iberia (2100-200BC).” 

Vana writes: This paper presents comprehensive analytical evidence to address one of the standing challenges in archaeometallurgy: How and when can we pinpoint technological choices linked to specific metallurgical operations such as natural alloying, co-smelting, mixing and recycling of copper-based alloys. The paper by J. Montes Landa et al. contextualises the microanalytical traces of a range of metallurgical features along with a theoretical framework in a way that, I expect, will be very useful to researchers of past metallurgies. In the authors’ own words, this work aims to “explain the logic behind the selection of bronze alloying techniques in different contexts, avoiding deterministic, aprioristic and linear narratives”, a direction much needed in the interdisciplinary pursuit of reconstructing past complex technologies.

Montes-Landa, J., Pons, E., Rovira, C., Moya, A., Alonso, N., Martinón-Torres, M., 2025. Towards a new history of bronze making: Explaining the selection of tin bronze alloying techniques across prehistoric N.E. Iberia (2100-200BC). Journal of Archaeological Science 178, 106206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2025.106206

Fig. 1. Diagram illustrating the factors affecting alloying techniques selection. Colours indicate different technological traditions involving a specific combination of alloying techniques.

Braden Cordivari

11 September 2026

Our latest Paper Spotlight comes from SAS member Nicolás C. Ciarlo (University of Cadiz), who shares a pair of recently published papers on archaeometallurgy.

The first, is "Spatially resolved neutron texture measurements of copper bolts from the Deltebre I (1813) site", published in the journal Materials Characterisation. Congratulations to Nicolas and the other authors! Check out the abstract below:

"Spatially resolved neutron texture analyses were performed on several copper bolts used to fasten different wooden components of the hull of the Deltebre I (1813) shipwreck. Since 2008 this site has been the subject of a thorough archaeological study by the Catalan Centre for Underwater Archaeology of the Archaeological Museum of Catalonia. It has been identified as one of the transport ships of a combined British, Sicilian and Spanish fleet that ran aground in the Ebro delta, off the coast of Catalonia, after an unsuccessful expedition to liberate the city of Tarragona from Napoleon's forces. In this paper, the texture and texture gradients of five different bolts recovered from this site were examined non-destructively, using the TOF neutron scanner ENGIN-X and analysing the data using the NyRTex methodology. The spatially resolved texture results indicate that at least three different methods were probably used to manufacture the bolts: drawing, casting, and forging and/or rolling. These results can both shed light on the processes of manufacture of fastenings of the early 19th century and contribute to identifying the ship.”

Berthaut-Clarac, S., Ciarlo, N.C., Bethencourt, M., Cloquet, C., 2026. A new insight into the sheathing of early 19th-century French warships: SEM-EDX and ICP-MS analyses of copper-based samples from the Lion (1809) and Robuste (1809). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 74, 105910. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2026.105910

The second paper is on the forging of meteoritic iron: “Compositional, Microstructural, and Microtextural Evolution of an Octahedrite Iron Meteorite During Experimental Forging: Implications for Archaeometallurgy” in Archaeometry.

Highlights

• Characterisation of the chemical, microstructural, and microtextural evolution of an octahedrite iron meteorite
• Experimental forging and analyses of samples using LIBS, XRF, and SEM-EDS-EBSD
• Framework for interpreting the technological processing of meteoritic iron artifacts in archaeological contexts

Summary

Meteoritic iron represents an early metallic resource exploited by human societies. Despite its archaeological significance, the thermo-mechanical behavior of meteoritic iron during forging remains poorly understood. In this study, forging experiments were conducted on an octahedrite iron meteorite to evaluate its chemical, microstructural, and microtextural evolution under controlled thermal conditions. Samples were forged at three temperature ranges and subsequently analyzed using LIBS, XRF, and SEM-EDS-EBSD. The results provide experimental constraints on the thermal thresholds controlling the preservation or destruction of Widmanstätten patterns during forging and offer a framework for interpreting the technological processing of meteoritic iron artifacts in archaeological contexts.

García, L.N., Macchi, J.A., Senesi, G.S., Henry, R., Cuvilly, F., Ciarlo, N.C., 2026. Compositional, Microstructural, and Microtextural Evolution of an Octahedrite Iron Meteorite During Experimental Forging: Implications for Archaeometallurgy. Archaeometry. https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.70167

Congratulations to Nicolas and his colleauges! Find out more about how to share your work with a Spotlight.

Braden Cordivari

04 September 2026

SAS is delighted to announce our newest Student Ambassador, Biaye Adekunle Julius! Julius is a PhD Candidate in the Department of History and International Studies at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. His research focuses on African history, particularly the histories of indigenous communities, migration and mobility, and the processes through which historical knowledge is preserved, transmitted, and interpreted. Julius writes the following on his goals for the Student Ambassador program, which is geared toward fostering professional development and outreach:

“I am excited about the opportunity to serve as a Student Ambassador and to contribute to the growth and visibility of archaeological sciences in Nigeria and across Africa.

I look forward to working with archaeological scholars and other researchers to promote interdisciplinary approaches that bring archaeological evidence into conversation with oral traditions, written records, and other forms of historical evidence. I also hope to organise and support seminars, awareness activities, and other engagements that connect SAS with students and early-career researchers in Nigeria and Africa. 

Beyond these, I look forward to participating in discussions, outreach, and other initiatives through which I can contribute meaningfully to the development of SAS and its wider community.”