Radiocarbon Dating of Mortars from the Baptismal Font of the San Lorenzo Cathedral of Alba (Cuneo, Italy): Comparison with the Thermoluminescence Dating of Related Bricks and Pipes

Giovanni L Pesce, Egle Micheletto, Gianluca Quarta, Sofia Uggè, Lucio Calcagnile, Anna Decri

Abstract


The San Lorenzo Cathedral of Alba is a Romanesque church (rebuilt in Gothic epoch) located in northwest Italy. Since 2007, this church has been subjected to renovations and archaeological excavations that led to the finding of the lower part of the basin and the water drainage pipe of a baptismal font of unknown age. Thermoluminescence and radiocarbon dating have been carried out respectively on some ceramic elements and lime mortar samples used in both the pipe and basin of the font. Thermoluminescence results suggest that some of the bricks may have been reused from previous structures while 14C results suggest that the font was built between the 9th and the 11th centuries AD, most probably in the 10th century AD.

DOI: 10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16299


Keywords


alba cathedral; baptismal font; pure lime lumps technique; thermoluminescence; radiocarbon dating; mortars

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