South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) permits 80/05/04/007/51 and 80/04/09/014/51 belonging to TH.. International audience.
A pilot study used eleven excavated sites in the Limpopo Province of South Africa to test the application of OSL dating for Iron Age ceramic shards. The culture-history sequences of Iron Age is well established by pottery style and the sites had already been radiocarbon dated. Because the excavations were part of various research projects, rather than a specific OSL study, the sites have been destroyed and hence, local environmental radioactivity was unknown. To reconstruct the environmental dose rate, we used data from three sources: (1), a worldwide survey, (2), radionuclides in the pottery and (3) recent geological surveys. The geological surveys yielded the most dates that are reasonably close to the known chronology, reproducing the correct chronological order in most cases. Some dates, however, are 200 years too recent and some standard deviations too high. To evaluate further the potential of OSL dating in Iron Age research, dosimetry data need to be collected in situ.
