Luminescence Dating on the Southern High Plains

詹姆斯·费瑟博士将运用光学发光和热释光测年技术对来自南部大平原一系列重要考古遗址的沉积物进行测年。这个位于德克萨斯州西北部和新墨西哥州东部的地区包含了一个很长的文化序列，它记录了新大陆的大部分史前历史。早期的遗址，如克洛维斯、拉伯克湖和米德兰，提供了对最早的古印第安人占领阶段的洞察，这些遗址之后是古代猎人和采集者的遗骸，他们适应了这个半干旱地区严重而迅速的气候变化。大平原地区的考古进展缓慢，因为木炭和其他碳基材料很少在遗址中保存下来，因此放射性碳定年法通常无法使用。因此，许多重要的遗址仍未确定日期。发光测年是根据土壤样品中发生的放射性引起的随时间变化而定的。虽然这项技术在世界许多地方已被证明是有用的，但它在本区域使用得很少，而且不确定它的效果如何。费瑟斯博士将首先分析已被广泛接受的独立测年控制的沉积物，以证明发光在各种重要的考古沉积物上可能具有的精度和准确性。这些包括不同环境下的湖泊、冲积物和风成沉积物，包括沼泽、playas和沙丘。在这一阶段完成后，将对先前未确定日期的沉积物进行定年，这些沉积物与解释考古记录的时间问题有关。热释光和光激发发光将主要应用于石英颗粒使用一些最近发展的技术。这个项目之所以重要，有几个原因。这将有助于将开发技术应用于具有考古重要性的地区。它还将提供数据，阐明美国平原的史前时期。

Dr. James Feathers will apply the techniques of optical luminescent and thermoluminescent dating to sediments from a series of archaeological important sites in the Southern Great Plains. This region in northwestern Texas and eastern New Mexico contains a long cultural sequence which documents most of the prehistory of the New World. Early sites such as Clovis, Lubbock Lake and Midland provide insight into the earliest Paleoindian phase of occupation and these are followed by remains left by Archaic hunters and gatherers who adapted to severe and rapid climatic variation in this semi-arid region. Archaeological advance in the Great Plains region has been slow because charcoal and other carbon based materials are only rarely preserved in sites and thus radiocarbon dating often cannot be employed. Thus many important sites remain undated. Luminescent dating is based on radioactively caused time dependent changes which take place in soil samples. While the technique has proven useful in many parts of the world, it has been used only infrequently in this region and it is uncertain how well it will work. Dr. Feathers will first analyze sediments that have widely accepted independent dating controls in order to demonstrate the precision and accuracy possible by luminescence on a variety of archaeologically important deposits. These include lacustrine, alluvial and aeolian deposits in different settings including draws, playas and dunes. After completion of this phase, dating of previously undated deposits that have a bearing on chronological problems in interpreting the archaeological record will be undertaken. Both thermoluminescence and optically stimulated luminescence will be applied to primarily quartz grains using a number of recently developed techniques.This project is important for several reasons. It will help to apply developing techniques to a region of archaeological importance. It will also produce data which illumines the prehistory of the US Plains.