TL and OSL Dating of Sediment and Pottery from Two Syrian Archaeological Sites

Abstract

Luminescence dating is widely applied nowadays, mainly for archaeological material and artefacts and sediments of all types and origins. However, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) from archaeological sediment, originated from mud brick buildings has been hardly studied. The archaeological sites of Tall Abu Fahd and Tall Qsubi are located in the Middle Euphrates Valley, Deir ez-Zor district, Syria. These two Bronze Age sites were recently discovered by a Spanish-Syrian team from the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums (Damascus) and the University of Coruña. Both sites were dated (about 3.5 ka BC) by typological pottery classification. Sediment and pottery samples from these archaeological sites were collected for luminescence dating. Several analytical procedures for obtaining equivalent doses were tested on the sediment samples. Blue OSL from quartz subsamples and IRSL, post IRSL Blue OSL from feldspar contaminated quartz and polymineral subsamples were performed to obtain OSL ages. For the pottery samples, additive dose TL on a coarse grain feldspar contaminated quartz subsample was performed as well. Results have shown agreement among all the luminescence procedures tested on the Tall Abu Fahd site samples after fading correction, showing ages around 2.7 ka BP. Obtained ages from the other site samples show disagreement among quartz blue OSL and the other subsamples. Fading ratios allow correcting age underestimations from the polymineral post-IR OSL signal. However, the polymineral IRSL signal still shows underestimation. Final sediment and pottery ages have shown good agreement. Older 14 C independent age (3.32 ka BP) corresponds to occupational periods of the site while sediment ages are attributed to a post occupation phase.

Rapid deglaciation of the La Vega gorge (Sierra de Gredos, Iberian Peninsula) at the end of the global Last Glacial Maximum

“…The double‐SAR protocol (Roberts and Wintle, 2001, 2003) was used to obtain D e s for IRSL and post‐IR OSL signals. Anomalous fading tests (Watanuki et al, 2003; Sánchez et al, 2008) were carried out on these samples. For K‐feldspar grains, the post‐IR IRSL‐SAR (post‐infrared infra‐red luminescence) protocol was used to assess the D e s (Buylaert et al, 2009; Thiel et al, 2012) being first grains stimulated at 50°C and later at 290°C.…”

FPGA based TL OSL system with EMCCD for luminescence studies

“…Optically and thermally stimulated luminescence is used for a wide range of research applications such as retrospective dosimetry [1], geo-and archaeo-chronology [2], material characterization, radiation dosimetry, etc. [3].…”

Thermoluminescence (TL) dating of ancient Syrian pottery from six different archaeological sites

“…TL dating is nowadays a powerful technique which supports the archaeological and archaeometric research (Sanjurjo Sanchez et al, 2008;Hagihara et al, 1999;Abdel-Wahab et al, 1996;Martini and Sibilia 2006). Usually, clay samples contain a few parts per million of uranium and thorium and a few per cent of potassium, and therefore the mass of an ancient pot receives a natural radiation.…”