A PROFESSOR who brought together the worlds of physics and archaeology has died at the age of 95.

Martin Aitken, a fellow of Linacre College, was a scientist who, with the archaeologist Christopher Hawkes, helped coin the term ‘archaeometry’.

His work helped bring major developments in dating archaeological discoveries from as early as the Lower Palaeolithic period.

He became Oxford professor of archaeometry in 1985.

Prof Aitken was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, to parents Percy and Ethel in March 1922.

He was educated at Stamford School before going to study physics at Wadham College, Oxford.

Based at the Oxford Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art from 1957, Prof Aitken expanded on research into radiocarbon dating.

He developed equipment to detect and date buried archaeological remains by measuring differences in the earth's magnetic intensity.

In the 1960s he began to use thermoluminescence, a phenomenon that was little known at the time. When ceramic or lava are heated, they release electrons that become trapped within imperfections in their structure during firing.

By measuring these, the length of time since their initial exposure to heat can be ascertained.

Thermoluminescence enabled dating as far back as the lower palaeolithic period – for which dating was otherwise elusive.

He later developed a similar technique of his own which remains a significant method of dating sediment.

The work of Prof Aitken changed some assumptions regarding the age of several well-known artefacts.

He married Joan in 1947, who he met during the Second World War at a radar station when she was in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.

They had five children and live together in a cottage near Oxford, often taking the family on archaeological digs.

He retired to the Monts de Forez in France in 1996.

When Joan died in 2005, he stayed on there with the support of the community and his daughter Jennifer.

He is remembered as a generous, likeable man with an insightful, logical mind.

He was also a competitive sailor and enjoyed camping.

Prof Aitken is survived by his daughters – Sara, Jennifer, Hannah and Jessica – and by nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Niall, his son, died in 2015.