Item dating is often very contextual. Not only does writing help considerably, but a lot of context was lost in the chaos of the Spanish colonization/looting of South America, unfortunately.
That being said, sometimes, there just isn't enough context, even for Old World items, to get anything more than a very broad dating down. I've seen some pieces with ranges of thousands of years, lmao.
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Wow that's so rare for an organic item to survive that long
How did that last for over 1k years???
Grave good, maybe? Items that are sealed up from the elements can last a long time.
Wonder why they can’t narrow the date range closer?
Item dating is often very contextual. Not only does writing help considerably, but a lot of context was lost in the chaos of the Spanish colonization/looting of South America, unfortunately.
That being said, sometimes, there just isn't enough context, even for Old World items, to get anything more than a very broad dating down. I've seen some pieces with ranges of thousands of years, lmao.
I was thinking carbon dating would be available in this case.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/318956