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A book providing a comprehensive summary of obsidian hydration dating (OHD) has been published by the IAOS and is available on Amazon. The title is: Computation of Archaeological Ages by Obsidian Hydration Dating - Science and Method, and the authors are Alexander (Sandy) Rogers and Christopher (Chris) Stevenson.
It is available from Amazon as a paperback (ISBN 979-8-234-04524 – 9, $25) or an e-book (ISBN 979-8-234-04525 -6, $20). Royalties from sales of the book accrue to the IAOS.
The book provides a single resource on OHD for the practicing archaeologist. It discusses the mineralogy of obsidian, the physics and chemistry of hydration, and measurement of hydration layers by optical microscopy (alternate measurement techniques, such as infrared spectroscopy or secondary ion mass spectrometry, are not addressed).
It describes methods to control for obsidian source chemistry and for environmental temperature as a basis for the determination of hydration rates. The authors also present a numerical example to demonstrate the application of the method. The book appendix includes a computer program listing for OHD computations.
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