Establishing and validating luminiscence dating procedures for archaoelogical remains in the geochronology laboratory of the University of A Coruña: first results

Abstract

Thermoluminescence dating (TL) of archaeological material is a technique about 50 years old, but it is not much used in Spain. Recent methodological advances have improved the accuracy and precision of the method. The unit of Geochronology of the University Geological Institute "Isidro Parga Pondal" University of A Coruna, has set tip recently a Luminescence laboratory. In order to test analytical dating procedures, medieval tiles from an archaeological site next to the Hercules Tower (A Corona) have been dated. The stratigraphical column was previously dated by 14C, so a good chronological control is available. Samples were analysed using two different analytical procedures: a classical one using a multialiguot approach (AD-TL) and a recent one using a single aliquot procedure (SAR-TL). Our results show that both methods yield comparable paleodoses, being the SAR-TL the one with smaller error.