Radiocarbon dating of the Church of St. Margaret of Antioch in Kopčany (Slovakia): International consortium results

0568924 - ÚJF 2023 CH eng A - Abstract
Povinec, P. - Kontul, I. - Cherkinsky, A. - Hajdas, I. - Gu, Y. - Jull, A. J. T. - Lupták, T. - Mihaly, M. - Steier, P. - Světlík, Ivo
Radiocarbon dating of the Church of St. Margaret of Antioch in Kopčany (Slovakia): International consortium results.
24th Radiocarbon Conference. 10th 14C & Archaeology Conference. Zurich, 11-16 September 2022. Book of abstracts. Zurich: ETH Zurich, 2022, č. článku A07_P02. ISBN N.
[Radiocarbon Conference /24./ 14C & Archaeology Conference /10./. 11.09.2022-16.09.2022, Zurich]
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT EF16_019/0000728
Institutional support: RVO:61389005
Keywords : C-14 * mass pectrometry * radiocarbon
OECD category: Nuclear physics

An international consortium of radiocarbon laboratories was established to date the origin of the Church of St. Margaret of Antioch in Kopčany (Slovakia), because its age was not well established in previous investigations. Altogether, 19 samples of wood, charcoal, mortar and plaster were analyzed. The 14C results obtained from the different laboratories as well as between the different sample types were in reasonably agreement, resulting in a 14C calibrated age of 780–870 AD (94% probability) for the Church. Although the 14C results have very good precision, the specific plateau‐shape of the calibration curve in this period caused the wide range of the calibrated age. The probability distribution from OxCal calibration shows, however, that about 80% of the probability distribution lies in the period before 863 AD, implying that the Church could have been constructed before the arrival of Constantine (St. Cyril) and St. Methodius to Great Moravia. The Church thus represents, together with the St. Georges’s Rotunda in Nitrianska Blatnica, probably the oldest standing purpose‐built Christian church in the eastern part of Central Europe.

Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0340201