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Thermoluminescence and the archaeologist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Martin Aitken
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Extract

During the decade before last the majority of archaeologists stepped aboard the good ship Radiocarbon on a voyage of discovery, some hesitatingly, some with enthusiasm. Once under way the engine room staff were usually too busy to be questioned, for it was a new device having complex technical problems that had to be solved as the ship went along. For the most part the voyagers were content to accept the daily information bulletins; but there were some that questioned whether the peripheral islands could have been reached by the route the navigators claimed and there were some that said the islands seemed to be much further away than they could possibly be. Eventually the engine room staff got its problems sorted out and there was time to talk to the passengers; after lengthy discussions it came to be agreed (by nearly all) that the motion of the ship was more affected by ocean currents than had been assumed, and a way of correcting for this was worked out.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 51 , Issue 201 , March 1977 , pp. 11 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1977 

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Footnotes

*

We asked Martin Aitken, of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University, if he could provide our readers with a not-too-difficult-to-understand explanation of the way in which thermoluminescence works. Our readers will particularly have had the technique drawn to their attention recently in our discussions about Glozel. We will leave Dr Aitken to introduce his own good ship S. S. Thermoluminescence

References

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