Preliminary TL and OSL investigations of obsidian samples

Abstract

Obsidian is a volcaniclastic mineral extremely hard to break, which was used in prehistoric Greece (and elsewhere in the World), in order to provide tools, weapons, knives and arrowheads. The present work aims to characterize this extremely precious tool stone by using both thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) techniques and investigate its potential use for luminescence dating purposes. Basic TL and OSL properties, such as TL and OSL thermal and optical stability, repeatability, TL and LM-OSL glow curve shape and mainly the linearity of the TL and OSL signals as a function of beta dose were investigated. Artificially irradiated samples indicate all promising luminescence features, such as the 110 degrees C TL peak and dose response sub-linearity for intermediate doses, quick and effective bleaching all over the entire TL glow curve, along with quite linear CW-OSL dose response for doses larger than 5 Gy. The lack of predose sensitisation indicates the suitability of the material for single aliquot measurements. Furthermore, several features provide indications that the signal does not relate to quartz, but in fact to other silicates. Unfortunately, both lack of bleaching ability for NIL signal, along with a peculiar shape of NOSL, provide major difficulties in dating applications.