Luminescence chronologies of late Pleistocene settlements in the Romanian Carpathians

在没有含碳材料的情况下，热释光（TL）测年是确定旧石器时代定居点的最直接手段，超出了放射性碳法的范围。特别是对于晚更新世（晚旧石器时代晚期和中石器时代）遗址，然而，TL日期的不确定性水平往往大于考古记录合理分辨率所需的水平。因此，该项目旨在提高TL方法的准确性和精密度。因此，将采用两种方法：1)改进样品纯化方法（磁分离和基于荧光的样品内辐射“热点”检测）；2)通过多次TL（和OSL）发射（“多发射”测年）来生成每个样品的多个年龄。后一种方法有望提高工件年龄的可靠性和精度。在这些方法在地质硅石材料上得到验证之后，它们将被应用于罗马尼亚喀尔巴阡山脉主要中石器时代遗址的加热文物，这些文物的年代测定技术迄今为止都失败了。邻近沉积物的OSL定年将提供额外的TL年龄备份。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，以建立这些遗址的年表。为了评估开发的方法，将把它们的结果与“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.