Direct Dating of Lithic Cuts Using Cosmogenic Nuclides: A Methodological Proposal to Establish the Construction Chronology of Megalithic Megastructures

Eduardo Antonio Ventura-Muñoz

ABSTRACT
The chronology of megalithic megastructures is currently established through the analysis of organic matter — charcoal, bone, fibers — found in proximity to the constructions. This method dates the most recently documented human presence in the vicinity of a structure. It does not date the act of construction.
If a temporal gap existed between the moment of construction and the moment of documented occupation, current methods lack the capacity to detect it, as they implicitly assume the temporal identity of builder and occupant without independent verification.
This proposal introduces a fundamental operational distinction: dating the cut is dating the construction. The instant at which a stone surface is first exposed is the instant at which construction occurs. Both events are temporally identical and physically recordable.
Cosmogenic nuclide dating of lithic cut surfaces offers a method to establish that date directly. Beryllium-10 does not occur naturally in quartz. Its accumulation begins at the exact moment of surface exposure at a known and constant rate. The difference in ¹⁰Be concentration between the cut surface of a megalithic block and equivalent uncut rock from the original quarry yields the date of the cut, independent of any associated organic evidence.
Aswan granite, the documented source of blocks in the principal Egyptian megastructures, contains approximately 30% quartz — a concentration adequate for this method.
The proposed protocol is reproducible, minimally invasive, falsifiable, and applicable to megalithic megastructures on any continent where materials with sufficient quartz content are available.