Practice question · Sort into groups
Each observation gives a terminus post quem or a terminus ante quem for the wall. Sort them.
Groups: TPQ (wall is no earlier than…) · TAQ (wall is no later than…)
- A timber felled in 380 CE reused in the wall’s base
- The wall is buried beneath a datable 600 CE destruction layer
- A 350 CE coin sealed in the wall’s foundation trench
- A 550 CE grave is cut down through the wall’s ruins
- A 500 CE floor runs over the wall’s demolished stub
- Pottery of the 4th century mixed into the wall’s mortar
Hints
- Material inside or beneath pushes the date later.
- Material sealing the ruins pulls the ceiling earlier.
Show the answer
TPQ (wall is no earlier than…): A 350 CE coin sealed in the wall’s foundation trench, Pottery of the 4th century mixed into the wall’s mortar, A timber felled in 380 CE reused in the wall’s base
TAQ (wall is no later than…): The wall is buried beneath a datable 600 CE destruction layer, A 550 CE grave is cut down through the wall’s ruins, A 500 CE floor runs over the wall’s demolished stub
Why
Everything inside or beneath the wall pushes its date later (TPQ); everything sealing or cutting its ruins pulls the ceiling earlier (TAQ). Between the two termini lives the wall.
Practise Stratigraphy and Relative Dating
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
More questions on Stratigraphy and Relative Dating
- Replay this section’s formation. Order the events from first to last.
- Match each stratigraphic term to its definition.
- The law of superposition says lower layers are older. Give a situation where a strict reading of it produces…
- An object lying deeper than another can still be the younger of the two.
- A pit cut through three layers contains a coin of 200 CE. Why does the coin date the pit rather than the…
- Which processes can put OLDER objects into YOUNGER deposits?