Title data
Schmidt, Christoph ; Rufer, Daniel ; Preusser, Frank ; Krbetschek, Matthias R. ; Hilgers, Alexandra:
Assessment of radionuclide distribution in silex by autoradiography in the context of dose rate determination for thermoluminescence dating.
In: Archaeometry.
Vol. 55
(2013)
Issue 3
.
- pp. 407-422.
ISSN 1475-4754
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.2012.00690.x
Project information
Project title: |
Project's official title Project's id SFB 806 'Our Way to Europe' SFB806 |
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Project financing: |
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft |
Abstract in another language
A combination of two autoradiography methods was applied to investigate the radionuclide distribution patterns in a range of different silices. We obtained greyscale images (β-radiation) and αtrack patterns for qualitative assessment, and used a statistical approach to quantify the degree of uniformity of the radiation fields. It was found that almost all samples are poor in potassium, thorium and uranium, and that locally high concentrations are present only in dark-coloured veins and inclusions. Statistical analyses reveal evidence of radionuclide clustering in more than half of the 21 specimens. Concerning thermoluminescence dating of burnt lithics, such gradients should be taken into account to improve precision and accuracy in cases where the external radiation is not strongly dominating for the sample under consideration.