Testing mathematical uranium migration models in combined ESR/U-series dating of fossil teeth from open-air sites

Several mathematical models have been suggested to describe uranium migration kinetics for ESR dating of fossil tooth. In the present study, different U-uptake models were used to calculate ages for fossil teeth from two open-air Paleolithic sites in Nihewan Basin - Donggutuo and Hougou and compared with independent age control of the sites. For Donggutuo site, the results show that the ages of three teeth calculated by EU and AU models were much younger than magnetostratigraphic age. At Hougou site, two teeth from the top of Nihewan lacustrine deposits give the consistent EU and AU ages within errors but younger than sediment OSL age. This study indicates that mathematical modeling could not always give convincing results for the open-air sites, which may experience dramatic hydrological variations and high erosion rates.