Annual Dose Analysis of Pottery from Thoud-Ta Thoud-Yai Archaeological Site in the Songkhla Province of Southern Thailand

Abstract

Thoud-Ta Thoud-Yai is Thailand's oldest archaeological site. Identifying the age of artifacts helps link past and present in storytelling. Absolute dating techniques are used to estimate a sample's geological age. Calculating the annual dose is the essential step. The annual dose depends on samples' concentrations of natural radionuclides and the sediment surrounding them. This research performed the annual radiation dose analysis in pottery by quantifying the concentrations of natural radionuclides using Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA). According to the volume analysis, internal dose, external dose, and cosmic rays contribute 0.180 ± 0.027, 0.959 ± 0.110, and 0.177 ± 0.009 mGy/year, respectively. The annual dose was found to be 1.139 ± 0.113 mGy/year. Annual dose measurements are necessary for determining the age of pottery samples. Since the age is determined by dividing the equivalent dose by the annual dose, this result connects the past and present at the Thoud-Ta Thoud-Yai archaeological site.