Luminescence Dating of Surface Ceramics from Naturally Burned Archaeological Contexts

Summary

Luminescence dating of surface ceramics at archaeological sites is problematic for many reasons, including estimation of environmental dose rate, likelihood that an artifact is in situ and weathering. Until now, there has not been systematic research on the effect of natural fires on luminescence dating of pottery. This is an important consideration, because while the temperature of a typical fire is well above the threshold for resetting the luminescence signal in a sherd, the length of time exposed to that heat is relatively short. At Wabakwa village in the Jemez Mountains (LA 478), we developed a robust sampling strategy for collecting surface ceramics around the pueblo from specific areas of differential heating and smoldering during the San Juan Prescribed forest fire in 2012. At this level of specificity, we can compare the luminescence signals of sherds exposed to varying temperatures and duration of heat at the same time. This study is a guide for archaeologists dating sites where surface collection of artifacts is the only sampling method permitted.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Fire and Humans in Resilient Ecosystems in the American Southwest

Keywords

Spatial Coverage