Luminescence dating is applied to sediments from Mwulu's Cave, whose lithics have been typologically considered Middle Stone Age (MSA) and have been previously assigned to what is called the Pietersburg industry. This industry is, however, poorly defined both chronologically and typologically. Luminescence methods were applied to both quartz and potassium feldspars by two different laboratories. Age

The 210Pb sediment dating is the most widely used method to determine recent (~100–150 years) chronologies and sediment accumulation rates in aquatic environments and has been used effectively for reconstruction of diverse environmental processes associated with global change. Owing to the relative accessibility of the 210Pb methodology, many environmental chronologies have been produced, but not always

A suite of 10 samples collected from an 11 m thick colluvial sequence at Voordrag, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, have been used to undertake a comparison of different luminescence methods. Good agreement is found between single grain quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and single grain K-feldspar post-infrared infrared-stimulated luminescence (post-IR IRSL) ages, with the exception of the

Pre- or post-depositional heating of fossil biominerals will impact resulting amino acid dates, but the study on the effects on their amino acids of dry artificial heating of molluscs has not yet been fully tested. Here we report a study on three mollusc species to show how amino acid content can potentially be used to identify archaeological samples that have been subjected to artificial heating.

Basaltic lavas provide a window into their mantle sources and the associated geodynamic processes associated with them. Obtaining absolute chronology on young basalt flows is often challenging. Some gypsum crusts in pyro-duct (lava tube) caves crystallize during the last “cooling” stages of tube formation probably at relatively low temperatures (i.e., <100 °C). Here we propose uranium-series dating

Bayesian inference has been applied extensively to chronologies in archaeological science since it provides several advantages over the (classic) frequentist approach. One of the most important aspects of applying Bayesian methods is their capacity to consider the stratigraphic relationship between ages. In luminescence dating, a crucial motivation for applying Bayesian modelling is the ability to

We present a new 52 m composite record (COL17c) composed of five sedimentary sequences retrieved from the Colônia basin (Southeastern Brazil). The COL17c record is composed of two main sub-units deposited under different regimes: a peatland above ∼14 m and lacustrine sediments below. Sedimentary description and core scanning (MSCL and XRF) are first used to align individual cores in order to produce

Coasts on active subduction zones are recurrently affected by great earthquakes and associated tsunamis. Deposits resulting from both tidal inundation after coseismic subsidence and from tsunamis can be radiocarbon dated to infer patterns of earthquake and tsunami recurrence. Yet, finding suitable plant material for radiocarbon dating is not always easy. Luminescence dating provides a more ubiquitously

In situ cosmogenic nuclides are widely employed to quantify topographic and geomorphic landscape evolution. However, few studies are devoted to investigating possibly unsteady denudation. In this work the denudation rates of five surface bedrock and one depth profile are measured using in situ cosmogenic 36Cl in different climate zones in China; cosmogenic 36Cl is a powerful proxy for the surface denudation

A Cedrela odorata tree ring width chronology spanning from 1786 to 2016 was developed in the quasi-equatorial eastern Amazon Basin. Annual calendar dates were assigned using dendrochronological techniques at the Federal University of Lavras, Brazil. Due to its strategic location at the edge of the Equator (approximately 0°57′S), an independent confirmation of the annual periodicity of this century-long

Time-dependent changes in dose rates generally need to be considered in luminescence dating due to the dynamic character of the geosphere. Nevertheless, this aspect is rather marginally treated in the literature. The present paper describes the methodology of including temporal variations of overburden, moisture content and radionuclide activity into the calculation of dating results. Consideration

In optical dating, equivalent dose (De) values for a sample are commonly obtained from measurement of the luminescence signals of individual mineral grains or aliquots and projection of the natural signals onto the corresponding regenerative-dose response curves. A final De estimate is calculated by using a statistical model to combine the individual De values. This method can be problematic for samples

Cosmogenic nuclides (CN) are widely used to determine both erosion rates E and exposure ages t of surfaces. However, in situations where both quantities are unknown, measuring a single CN at a surface is typically not sufficient to determine both t and E. We discuss the possibility of determining both t and E by measuring the CN pair, in-situ 10 Be and 14 C in quartz, at a surface. We use a previously

Overestimation in dose recovery results was observed at high doses (> 1000 Gy) when a single-aliquot regenerative-dose (SAR) procedure is applied to the multiple-elevated-temperature post-IR IRSL (MET-pIRIR) signals from potassium-rich feldspar (K-feldspar) grains from the Nihewan Basin. Such overestimation results from the non-bleachable (residual) signals that were not appropriately corrected for

Alluvial and colluvial “cut and fill” deposits preserved in valleys of the Karoo, South Africa, reflect basin-scale adjustments in fluvial process-regime. Such deposits in the Wilgerbosch catchment have previously proven difficult to date using radiocarbon (14C) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) methods. In this paper, we test the suitability of K-feldspar post-IR infrared (pIRIR) methods

Artificial diagenesis of the intra-crystalline proteins isolated from Patella vulgata was induced by isothermal heating at 140 °C, 110 °C and 80 °C. Protein breakdown was quantified for multiple amino acids, measuring the extent of peptide bond hydrolysis, amino acid racemisation and decomposition. The patterns of diagenesis are complex; therefore the kinetic parameters of the main reactions were estimated

This study successfully isolates a fraction of intra-crystalline proteins from shells of the marine gastropod Patella vulgata and assesses the suitability of these proteins for IcPD (Intra-crystalline Protein Diagenesis) geochronology. We discuss the mineralogical composition of this gastropod, investigated for the first time by X-ray diffraction mapping, and use the results to inform our sampling

When mollusc shells are analysed conventionally for amino acid geochronology, the entire population of amino acids is included, both inter- and intra-crystalline. This study investigates the utility of removing the amino acids that are most susceptible to environmental effects by isolating the fraction of amino acids encapsulated within mineral crystals of mollusc shells (intra-crystalline fraction)