Luminescence Dating on the Southern High Plains

詹姆斯·费瑟斯博士将把光学发光和热释光测年技术应用于大平原南部一系列考古重要遗址的沉积物。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漫长的文化序列，它记录了新大陆的大部分史前历史。克洛维斯、卢伯克湖和米德兰等早期遗址提供了对古印度占领最早阶段的洞察，紧随其后的是适应这一半干旱地区严重和快速气候变化的古代猎人和采集者留下的遗骸。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保存在遗址中，因此往往无法使用放射性碳测年。因此，许多重要遗址仍未确定日期。发光测年是基于土壤样品中发生的放射性引起的随时间变化的。虽然这项技术在世界许多地区都被证明是有用的，但它在该地区的使用频率很低，目前还不确定它的效果如何。费瑟斯博士将首先分析已经被广泛接受的独立测年控制的沉积物，以证明在各种考古重要沉积物上发光可能具有的精确度和准确性。这些沉积包括不同背景下的湖相、冲积和风成沉积，包括引水、冲积和沙丘。在这一阶段完成后，将对与解释考古记录的年代问题有关的以前未确定日期的沉积物进行年代测定。热释光和光激发发光都将主要应用于石英颗粒，使用一些最新开发的技术。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。它还将产生阐明美国平原史前情况的数据。

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.