Extending Applications and Improving Methodology for Luminescence Dating of Archaeological Materials

扩大考古材料发光测年的应用并改进方法

• 批准号: 0909553
• 负责人: James Feathers
• 金额: $ 18.53万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-07-15 至 2013-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0909553&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Extending; Applications; Improving; Methodology; Luminescence

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Luminescence dating has become an increasingly useful chronological tool over the last couple of decades in archaeological and geological sciences. This is due to methodological developments and an increased perception that luminescence can provide dating information in contexts that other dating methods cannot. The luminescence laboratory at the University of Washington is one of the few that specializes in archaeological applications. With National Science Foundation support, the laboratory has explored a number of unique applications in the past and with new support plans to further this research in four areas.1) Throughout the western Great Plains and adjoining Rocky Mountains, prehistoric people have left a number of stone alignments -- some of which are the remnants of hunting drive lines or blinds, others of which had ritual functions ("medicine wheels"), and still others of which served as housing support ("tipi rings"). These alignments are ubiquitous but most have never been dated despite clear importance for understanding prehistoric settlement and subsistence in this region. The laboratory has done basic research in dating buried soils and will apply these methods to dating the sediments under the rocks to the time when the rocks were emplaced. Preliminary results show great promise and a dating program at several sites in Wyoming and Montana is being initiated, in collaboration with University of Arizona, Colorado State University and University of Quebec in Montreal.2) Luminescence has recently been applied to rock surfaces to date their last exposure to sunlight. As an exploratory project, the laboratory intends to see if the extent of light penetration into exposed rocks, as measured by their luminescence, can be used to date how long a rock has been exposed. This would allow dating when a building stone still exposed to sun was first cut, when lithic material in a quarry was last removed, or when prehistoric tools of sufficient size were flaked to form a finished tool. This work, using samples from a Colorado quarry, is in collaboration with a private technological firm in Colorado and with another luminescence laboratory in Scotland.3) The laboratory has been trying to perfect using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) as an improved method for dating fine-grained prehistoric ceramics over the traditional thermoluminescence (TL). The laboratory has been applying pulsed OSL as a way to eliminate signal components which can lead to age underestimation, and will be undertaking analyses to better understand the pulsed signal in ceramics. This work is in collaboration with another laboratory in South Africa.4) The laboratory has a multi-year program dating paleoindian sites in Brazil as part of a larger project, in conjunction with the University of São Paulo, to better understand early human habitation in South America. The dating work has employed single-grain dating in an attempt to identify sediment mixing. Current research is aimed at better understanding how a date can be obtained from single grains.While this research is aimed at specific applications, the methodological developments can have much broader implications both for luminescence dating in general and for archaeology. All four areas of research can be applied in other areas of archaeology. The laboratory also serves an instructional role at the University of Washington and the current NSF support should provide a number of students with employment.

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。在过去的几十年里，发光测年已经成为考古和地质科学中越来越有用的年代工具。这是由于方法的发展和越来越多的人认为发光可以在其他测年方法无法提供的情况下提供测年信息。华盛顿大学的发光实验室是少数几个专门研究考古应用的实验室之一。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，该实验室在过去探索了许多独特的应用，并制定了新的支持计划，以在四个领域进一步开展这项研究。1）在整个西部大平原和毗邻的落基山脉，史前人类留下了许多石头排列-其中一些是狩猎驱动线或百叶窗的残余物，其他的则具有仪式功能（“药轮”），还有一些用作外壳支撑（“tipi环”）。这些路线是无处不在的，但大多数从来没有被确定日期，尽管明确的重要性，了解史前定居和生存在这一地区。该实验室已在测定埋藏土壤的年代方面进行了基础研究，并将应用这些方法测定岩石下沉积物的年代，直至岩石侵位的时间。初步结果显示，在怀俄明州和蒙大拿州的几个地点，一个测年计划正在启动，与亚利桑那大学，科罗拉多州立大学和魁北克大学合作。作为一个探索性的项目，实验室打算看看光穿透暴露的岩石的程度，通过它们的发光来测量，是否可以用来确定岩石暴露的时间。这将使我们能够确定一个仍然暴露在阳光下的建筑石材何时被第一次切割，采石场中的石质材料何时被最后一次移除，或者当足够大的史前工具被剥落形成成品工具时。这项工作使用了来自科罗拉多采石场的样品，与科罗拉多的一家私人技术公司和苏格兰的另一个发光实验室合作。3）实验室一直在试图完善光释光（OSL）作为传统热释光（TL）的改进方法来测定细粒史前陶瓷的年龄。该实验室一直在应用脉冲OSL作为消除可能导致年龄低估的信号成分的方法，并将进行分析，以更好地了解陶瓷中的脉冲信号。这项工作是与南非的另一个实验室合作进行的。4）该实验室有一个多年计划，与圣保罗大学合作，对巴西的古印第安遗址进行年代测定，作为更大项目的一部分，以更好地了解南美洲的早期人类居住地。测年工作采用了单颗粒测年法，试图确定沉积物的混合。目前的研究旨在更好地了解如何从单个谷物中获得日期。虽然这项研究旨在具体应用，但方法学的发展对一般发光测年和考古学都有更广泛的影响。所有这四个研究领域都可以应用于考古学的其他领域。该实验室还在华盛顿大学担任教学角色，目前NSF的支持应该为一些学生提供就业机会。