model for mid-term fading in TL dating

Abstract

Experimental evidence indicates that identical radiation doses acquired by archaeological materials during burial give smaller induced luminescent signals than those resulting from laboratory calibration dosing, thus leading to an underestimation of archaeological ages. A theoretical model is proposed that accounts for this behaviour based on the thermal release of electrons trapped at centres possessing a distribution of activation energies. The predicted degree of age underestimation is found to be sensitive to the ambient burial temperature. In the presence of several independent recombination centres this underestimation will depend on the centre selected by the employment of appropriate colour filters for detection.