Adjacent radiocarbon dating of Iron Age site foundation

Since the 1950s, radiocarbon dating of archaeological remains has evolved significantly with the advent of new instruments, protocols, and redesigned concepts. Here, we show that the re- covery of chronological information ‘stored’ locally can be achieved by the selective dating of carbonates present in adjacent mineralised organic materials. We present results from the iconic Iron Age site of Creney-le-Paradis (Aube, France). The 14C ages extracted using an innovative selective strategy provide new evidence for the chronology of the foundation of the site. We show that the copper carbonates accretions retained the signature of an anthropogenic humus layer, accurately dated between 808 and 790 BC, allowing us to infer human activity associated with the foundation of the burial mound. This work opens the way for the development of spa- tially resolved dating imagery within sites, where the analysis of series of micro-samples could document the chronology of their formation.