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Radiocarbon dating of mortar charcoals from romanesque Southern Corridor, Prague Castle

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Abstract

The Southern Corridor of bishopric district was uncovered in early 1920s as the first Romanesque remains in the 3rd Courtyard of the Prague Castle. Based on historical context it likely originates from 11th − 12th century. To benchmark this estimate, radiocarbon dating of charcoals found in its mortars was performed. The results support the previous age estimate and suggest an ongoing building activity on site such as raising cascade walls at least till 14th − 16th century.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Research, Development and Education Operational Programme, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, under the project „Ultra-trace isotope research in social and environmental studies using accelerator mass spectrometry“, Reg. No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000728, and by Czech Ministry of Culture, under the project „Possibilities of radiocarbon dating of historic mortars“, No. DG20P02OVV028.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Dosimetry, Nuclear Physics Institute of the CAS, Na Truhlářce 39/64, 180 00, Praha, Czech Republic

    Pavel Kundrát, Pavla Tomanová, Markéta Petrová, Josef Tecl, Ivo Světlík & Kateřina Pachnerová Brabcová

  2. Department of Medieval Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology of the CAS, Letenská 123/4, 118 01, Praha, Czech Republic

    Jana Maříková-Kubková, Iva Herichová & Pavla Tomanová

  3. Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the CAS, Prosecká 809/76, 190 00, Praha, Czech Republic

    Petr Kozlovcev, Kristýna Kotková, Anna Fialová & Jan Válek

  4. Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 1935/47, 040 01, Košice, Slovakia

    Jan Kubančák

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  1. Pavel Kundrát
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  2. Jana Maříková-Kubková
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  9. Anna Fialová
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  12. Ivo Světlík
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  13. Kateřina Pachnerová Brabcová
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Correspondence to Kateřina Pachnerová Brabcová.

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Kundrát, P., Maříková-Kubková, J., Herichová, I. et al. Radiocarbon dating of mortar charcoals from romanesque Southern Corridor, Prague Castle. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 332, 1469–1474 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-022-08577-7

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