Sampling pottery in luminescence dating studies

A programme of dating pottery from Later Prehistoric sites in Britain revealed that pottery sampled From large features such as enclosure ditches is likely to be residual, i.e. not contemporary with the infilling of the feature. This is important since in luminescence dating such features are often preferred due to the simplification of the dosimetry. Dates obtained for the pottery from smaller contexts, however, were clustered and in agreement with the expected date. In the light of these findings, it is recommended that in situations where the purpose of dating the pottery is to date the feature, pottery be sampled from smaller, shorter-lived contexts. This introduces some complications in the dosimetry, but a simple means of determining the gamma dose rate is presented. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.