An automated iterative procedure for determining palaeodoses using the SARA method

Palaeodose determination is central to luminescence dating of Quaternary sa mples, both archaeological and geological. All existing methods assume some knowledge of the palaeodose prior to analysis. This may be gained from est imates of the age of the sample, or from laboratory tests. However, the for mer is sometimes incorrect, and the latter is time consuming. Here we descr ibe a fully automated variant of the 'single aliquot regeneration and added dose' (SARA) method that makes no such assumptions. The software algorithm is designed so that the system intelligently selects the radiation doses i t gives to the sample in the laboratory on the basis of the optically stimu lated luminescence (OSL) measurements that it makes. This reduces the numbe r of replicate analyses that are required. The OSL method is tested on a sample of heated quartz given known radiation doses in the laboratory, and then on quartz extracted from a suite of arch aeological samples (burnt stones and bricks) whose palaeodoses have been me asured using other methods. The results are encouraging, though show the ne ed for some further investigations. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All righ ts reserved.