An automated iterative procedure for determining palaeodoses using the SARA method

Palaeodose determination is central to luminescence dating of Quaternary samples, both archaeological and geological. All existing methods assume some knowledge of the palaeodose prior to analysis. This may be gained from estimates of the age of the sample, or from laboratory tests. However, the former is sometimes incorrect, and the latter is time consuming. Here we describe a fully automated variant of the 'single aliquot regeneration and added dose' (SARA) method that makes no such assumptions. The software algorithm is designed so that the system intelligently selects the radiation doses it gives to the sample in the laboratory on the basis of the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurements that it makes. This reduces the number of replicate analyses that are required. The OSL method is tested on a sample of heated quartz given known radiation doses in the laboratory, and then on quartz extracted from a suite of archaeological samples (burnt stones and bricks) whose palaeodoses have been measured using other methods. The results are encouraging, though show the need for some further investigations.