Luminescence dating of bricks from the gothic Saint James Church in Toruń

Abstract

Saint James Church in Toruń is one of the most important gothic monuments in Poland. The date of the beginning of its construction is known from historical reports but the earlier history of the site remains undiscovered. During the archaeological excavations in years 2010 and 2011 five brick samples were collected for luminescence dating as well as four additional samples from the brick surroundings for the dose rate estimation. The equivalent dose was determined by TL and OSL methods. The TL results differ significantly from the OSL results but the last ones are verified by historical knowledge and radiocarbon dating. Establishing the dose rate from gamma rays needs a special attention because of the complex course of the foundations of the church. The details of the applied approach are presented in the current work. The results obtained indicate that a solid brick construction existed at the site of the presbytery of the Saint James Church before it was build.

Nuclear physics for cultural heritage

“…Altogether twelve brick samples were collected in five excavations carried out around the present presbytery and vestry. The luminescence dating of samples from the deep foundations on the north-western side of presbytery proved that these foundations are earlier than the wall of present basilica [123]. However, the brick samples taken from the shallower foundations turned out to be of different ages.…”

“…Bricks were one of the first objects to be dated using luminescence techniques, with the earliest measurements made over fifty years ago [116,117]. However, compared to pottery or geological sediment, brick dating is not often reported in the literature [118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127].…”

Luminescence Dating Procedures at the Gliwice Luminescence Dating Laboratory

“…Water content correction is done as described by Aitken (1985) and Aitken and Xie (1990). Specific geometry, depth and geographical location are also included if appropriate (Moska et al, 2018bor Chruścińska et al, 2014. More detailed information on how those dose rate corrections are applied can be found, for example, in Durcan et al (2015).…”

CW-OSL, LM-OSL and TL Dating of Bricks from Karakorum, Mongolia: Insights from TL Spectra

“…The single-aliquot regenerative dose protocol based on the measurement of optically stimulated luminescence from heated ceramics has been successfully used in retrospective dosimetry (Bøtter-Jensen et al, 2000) and for dating of heated ceramics in archaeology and art history (Bailiff, 2007;Chruścińska et al, 2014;Solongo et al, 2014;Solongo et al, 2006a). Here we present SAR measurements using CW-OSL (Table 2) performed on HD3 and K02/08.…”

“…TL dating is usually used to the dating of bricks (Bailiff and Holland, 2000;Blain et al, 2007;Chruścińska et al, 2008Chruścińska et al, , 2014Guibert et al, 2009;Martini and Sibilia, 2001;Solongo et al, 2014). Two methods were used to determine D e -TL measurements using SAR (Table 2) and the TL-REG (regenerative measurements involved the same sequence as TL-SAR but without test dose) method.…”