Nitrogen dating is a form of
relative dating
Relative dating is the science of determining the relative order of past events (i.e., the age of an object in comparison to another), without necessarily determining their absolute age (i.e., estimated age). In geology, rock or superficial dep ...
which relies on the reliable breakdown and release of
amino acids from bone samples to estimate the age of the object.
For human bones, the assumption of about 5% nitrogen in the bone, mostly in the form of
collogen, allows fairly consistent dating techniques.
Compared to other dating techniques, Nitrogen dating can be unreliable because
leaching from bone is dependent on temperature,
soil pH
Soil pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity (alkalinity) of a soil. Soil pH is a key characteristic that can be used to make informative analysis both qualitative and quantitatively regarding soil characteristics. pH is defined as the ne ...
, ground water, and the presence of microorganism that digest nitrogen rich elements, like collagen.
Some studies compare nitrogen dating results with dating results from methods like
fluorine absorption dating
Fluorine absorption dating is a method used to determine the amount of time an object has been underground.
Fluorine absorption dating can be carried out based on the fact that groundwater contains fluoride ions. Items such as bone that are in t ...
to create more accurate estimates.
Though some situations, like thin porous bones might more rapidly change the dating created by multiple methods.
References
Lyndsie Krogh Sr. at Stanford University
{{Chronology
Dating methodologies in archaeology
Nitrogen cycle
Nitrogen