Abstract:
Seven samples were collected from sediments at the Palaeolithic site of Jeongokri, Korea, known for the first discovery of Acheulian-like handaxes in East Asia. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages obtained from chemically purified quartz from the upper five samples are in stratigraphic order, but the ages of the lower samples are not. The OSL signal of the oldest samples occurs well above the saturation level of the exponential part of the dose response curve; however, the OSL signal has an additional component that grows linearly at high doses, making it possible to calculate a De value and thus an age. However the reliability of calculating De using this linear component is not clear. In contrast, the thermally transferred OSL (TT-OSL) signal grows linearly with dose up to at least 1600 Gy, thus permitting its use for dating. The TT-OSL ages are in agreement with those from the OSL for the four uppermost samples, but give older ages for the lower three samples. Ages obtained using TT-OSL are in stratigraphic order and indicate that the oldest artefacts have an age of 195 ka.
Description:
Kim, J. C., Duller, G. A. T., Roberts, H. M., Wintle, A. G., Lee, Y. I., Yi, S. B. (2010) Re-evaluation of the chronology of the palaeolithic site at Jeongokri, Korea, using OSL and TT-OSL signals from quartz. Quaternary Geochronology, 5, (2-3), pp. 365-370 12th International Conference on Luminescence and Electron Spin Resonance Dating (LED 2008) Sponsorship: Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD) (KRF-2006- 612-C00035) and partly by the Korea Polar Research Institute (PE09010). Research into the application of luminescence methods to Palaeolithic archaeology at Aberystwyth is supported by NERC EFCHED grant NER/T/S/2002/00677 to GATD.