Luminescence chronologies of late Pleistocene settlements in the Romanian Carpathians

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Thermoluminescence (TL) dating of heated silex artifacts is the most direct means of determining the occupation of Paleolithic settlements in the absence of carbon-bearing material and beyond the range of the radiocarbon method. Especially with regard to late Pleistocene (Late Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic) sites, however, the uncertainty levels of TL dates are often larger than needed for reasonable resolution of the archeological record. The project thus aims to contribute to enhancing both accuracy and precision of the TL method. Therefore, two approaches will be followed: 1) Improving methods of sample purification (magnetic separation and luminescence-based detection of radiation 'hot spots' within the sample) and 2) generating multiple ages per specimen by means of several TL (and OSL) emissions ('multi-emission' dating). The latter approach is expected to increase the reliability and precision of the artifact's age. After verification of these methods on geological silex material, they will be applied to heated artifacts from mainly Mesolithic sites in the Romanian Carpathians for which alternative dating techniques failed so far. An additional backup of TL ages will be provided by OSL dating of adjacent sediments. The expected Mesolithic ages will reduce measurement time and allow processing of a reasonable number of samples during project run time to establish chronologies for these sites. To evaluate the developed methods, their results will be compared to 'conventional' dates.