Dating quartz near saturation - Simulations and application at archaeological sites in South Africa and South Carolina

Single-grain dating of quartz near saturation is shown to have the potential of under-estimating equivalent dose. Experimental work shows that dose recoveries can be under-estimated when the administered dose approaches saturation, an observation also seen by Duller (2012). Duller (2012) found that by calculating the ratio between the fast and medium bleaching components, the “fast ratio”, for each grain, the under-estimation can be corrected by removing those grains with low fast ratios. Similar results are shown for samples from archaeological sites in South Africa and South Carolina. To understand why grains with low fast ratios might lead to equivalent dose under-estimation, simulations using a comprehensive quartz model was employed. It was found that large grain-to-grain variation in the decay constants for the fast and medium components can cause this effect.