Posted by Steve Price on June 25, 1999 at 11:44:26:
In Reply to: Dating Turkoman rugs posted by Maury Bynum on June 25, 1999 at 10:18:33:
Dear Maury,
What I said, was, "I'm not sure, but I also think you are mistaken in asserting that none of the contributors to the discussion so far attended either conference." If nobody who has posted on this attended it except you, so be it. Obviously, my suggestion that you might be mistaken offended you. I apologize and intended no offense by it.
But the question of whether C-14 dating is really applicable to rugs made during the past 400 years really doesn't hinge on who did or did not attend a meeting in Basel. The relevance of the meeting to our discussion is that those who were there might know some important things that the rest of us don't.
Therefore, and especially in view of the fact that you seem to be the only contributor who was there, I repeat, "I assume from your comments that you learned some things at those sessions that would enlighten the rest of us on the subject of dating tribal textiles (our discussion topic). Why not share it with the group?" I am particularly interested in how the problem of contamination by smoke was handled, since this can add hundreds of years to the apparent age derived from C-14 analysis and every tribal rug can be presumed to have been exposed to smoke at some time.
Regards,
Steve Price