45 Geoarchaeology

Sunday, 19 October 2025
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, 214D

Port-OSL profiling in service of prehistoric to pre-modern archaeological research

Paper number: 45-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:05 PM – 2:20 PM

Authors

Abstract

Portable, pulsed-photon, Optically Stimulated Luminescence (portable/port-OSL) readers measure bulk luminescence signals from late Quaternary sediments. The post-OSL signal depth profile reveals practical and preliminary chronostratigraphic insight for studying late Quaternary depositional systems. Vertical, horizontal and 2D-matrix port-OSL profiling has been found to be useful for interpreting sedimentary sections and their depositional processes during and after fieldwork, preferably where sediments are similar in mineralogy and particle-size. Such profiling can also target field sampling for prioritizing samples for OSL dating. Based on >100 research and salvage archaeological excavations in Israel spanning prehistoric to pre-modern periods, we briefly review the methodological approaches, main utilities and complexities of port-OSL profiling for geomorphic and chronological research, concerning in-site and off-site environmental contexts. We demonstrate how port-OSL, even in non-uniform sediment mineralogy, and for thin units that often characterize archaeological sites, can help detect crypto-stratigraphic boundaries, and attribute units to anthropogenic or natural forcings. In some sections, port-OSL signals can even be correlated to absolute and archaeological chronologies to produce site-specific or regional, port-OSL-based, rough age estimate functions. Altogether, port-OSL appears to be a fine tool for site and landscape excavations in service of prehistoric to pre-modern archaeological research.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-411938

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