To complete this activity, download and print the Student Question Sheet.

Archaeologists and Anthropologists, who study human cultures, often find themselves doing forensic science. When historic and prehistoric sites are excavated they need to be dated. There are two general categories of dating techiniques: Relative and Absolute.

In this activity you will learn about different dating methods in each of these categories and see how they would be applied to solve a fictional cold case.

We begin this activity with a mystery, and a disclaimer. First, the disclaimer: The following story is a bald-faced lie. Names and dates have been randomly chosen and have absolutely no relationship to actual people or events.