TL Dating
Luminescence Dating
TL

Thermoluminescence (TL) Dating determines the time elapsed since a material, such as ceramics, pottery or bricks, containing crystalline minerals (quartz and feldspars) was last strongly heated or fired. After firing, natural environmental radiation gradually leads to the trapping of charges within mineral crystals. When the sample is reheated in a laboratory, these electrons are released and emit light; the intensity of this light indicates the accumulated radiation dose. The age is calculated by dividing this dose by the annual environmental radiation dose rate. Sampling for TL is destructive. TL can be used either for the authenticity testing of ceramic art objects, or to a more precise dating of archaeological pottery. Precision and accuracy depend on the size of the available sample and the amount of information about environmental conditions and the environmental dose rate. Accordingly, the relative error of the reported age is between 10-20% in case of authenticity testing and 5-10% in the case of standard pottery dating. The required sample size is 50-100 mg for authenticity testing and 500-1000 mg for standard pottery dating. The age range of the method is from a few decades to 40-50 thousand years.

Other

Thermoluminescence (TL)

Analysis Method

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