Luminescence dating techniques
10-Nov-2019 23:08
Used particularly for Australian megafauna teeth in jawbone 4.2myo (see Earth Science Australia - Expeditions...) Electron spin resonance (ESR) has been used for absolute dating of archaeological materials such as quartz, flints, carbonate crystals, and fossil remains for nearly 50 years.
The technique is based on the fact that certain crystal behaves as natural dosimeters.
TL dating is a matter of comparing the energy stored in a crystal to what "ought" to be there, thereby coming up with a date-of-last-heated.
In the same way, more or less, OSL (optically stimulated luminescence) dating measures the last time an object was exposed to sunlight.
But when the rock is exposed to high enough levels of heat or light, that exposure causes vibrations in the mineral lattices and the trapped electrons are freed.
Luminescence dating is a collective term for dating methods that encompass thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating techniques.
TL dates the last heating and last daylight exposure, while PSL and RL date only the last exposure to daylight, providing a family of related dating procedures for heated and unheated sediments...source: https:// Comparison of timescales of other dating techniques In Australia determining the time of arrival of the first inhabitants at perhaps 60,000years bp. Radio-carbon dating is at it's extreme upper limit with very large degrees of error due to the tiny amounts of materials present.