History
Obsidian hydration dating was introduced in 1960 by Irving Friedman and Robert Smith of the U.S. Geological Survey. Their initial work focused on obsidians from archaeological sites in western North America.
The use of Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) in the measurement of obsidian hydration dating was introduced by two independent research teams in 2002.
Today the technique is applied extensively by archaeologists to date prehistoric sites and sites from protohistory in California and the Great Basin of North America. It has also been applied in South America, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, including New Zealand and Mediterranean Basin.
Read more about this topic: Obsidian Hydration Dating
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
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—Terri Apter (20th century)