Luminescence chronologies of late Pleistocene settlements in the Romanian Carpathians

在缺乏含碳物质和超出放射性碳方法范围的情况下，加热锡莱克斯制品的热释光（TL）测年是确定旧石器时代定居点的最直接手段。特别是对于更新世晚期（旧石器时代晚期和中石器时代）的网站，然而，TL日期的不确定性水平往往大于所需的合理分辨率的考古记录。因此，该项目旨在提高TL方法的准确度和精密度。因此，将遵循两种方法：1）改进样品纯化方法（磁性分离和基于发光的样品内辐射“热点”检测）和2）通过几个TL（和OSL）发射（“多发射”测年）产生每个标本的多个年龄。后一种方法有望提高人工制品年龄的可靠性和精确度。这些方法的地质锡莱克斯材料验证后，他们将被应用于加热文物主要是中石器时代的网站在罗马尼亚喀尔巴阡山脉的替代测年技术失败至今。通过对邻近沉积物进行光释光测年，将提供TL年龄的额外备份。预期的中石器时代将减少测量时间，并允许在项目运行期间处理合理数量的样本，以建立这些网站的年表。为了评估所开发的方法，将其结果与“传统”日期进行比较。

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.