Thermoluminescence dating simple definition

The TL laboratory at Daybreak was established in 1977 to make TL available to the art community in general. Studies at Oxford back in the 70s on Romano-British pottery indicated that when all quantities entering the age equation are measured, the TL date of a single potsherd will typically fall within 15 per cent of the known date.

When dates of a number of sherds associated together are averaged, the error is reduced typically to 7-10 per cent. The succeeding 30 years, and increased understanding of the dosimetry, have not brought much improvement.

These will give an authentic date for a bogus object.

It must be realized that TL dating is but one of the criteria for judging authenticity.

Warning about fakes using ancient materials What about airport x-rays and radiography? Thus, when one measures dose in pottery, it is the dose accumulated since it was fired, unless there was a subsequent reheating.

The phenomenon of thermoluminescence was first described by the English chemist Robert Boyle in 1663.

Much stoneware is not so hard as porcelain and may be sampled by drilling.

The clay cores from lost wax metal castings may readily be tested.

By comparing this light output with that produced by known doses of radiation, the amount of radiation absorbed by the material may be found.

Most mineral materials, including the constituents of pottery, have the property of thermoluminescence (TL), where part of the energy from radioactive decay in and around the mineral is stored (in the form of trapped electrons) and later released as light upon strong heating (as the electrons are detrapped and combine with lattice ions).