LUMINESCENCE DATING OF SEDIMENT SAMPLES FROM WHITE PAINTINGS ROCKSHELTER, BOTSWANA

Authors
Citation
Jk. Feathers, LUMINESCENCE DATING OF SEDIMENT SAMPLES FROM WHITE PAINTINGS ROCKSHELTER, BOTSWANA, Quaternary science reviews, 16(3-5), 1997, pp. 321-331
Citations number
24
Categorie Soggetti
Geosciences, Interdisciplinary",Geology
Journal title
ISSN journal
02773791
Volume
16
Issue
3-5
Year of publication
1997
Pages
321 - 331
Database
ISI
SICI code
0277-3791(1997)16:3-5<321:LDOSSF>2.0.ZU;2-Y
Abstract
Luminescence dating of sediments from rockshelters is complicated by t he possibility of incomplete sunlight bleaching in antiquity and uncer tainties in the distribution of radioactivity. Yet such dating is impo rtant for the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa when rockshelters pr ovide a large fraction of the known record. Sufficient bleaching is de monstrated for sediments at White Paintings Rockshelter in northwest B otswana by comparing results from slowly bleaching thermoluminescence signals and rapidly bleaching optically stimulated luminescence. Radio active disequilibrium is also shown to be present in these sediments a nd believed to result from U-238 and U-234, requiring a small correcti on to the dose rare. Derived ages are fractionation between in broad a greement with independent dating evidence and archaeological expectati ons. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.