Defining minimum reporting requirements for ESR dating of optically bleached quartz grains

Mathieu Duval (1) , Jean-Jacques Bahain (2, 3) , Mélanie Bartz (4) , Christophe Falguères (2) , Veronica Guilarte (5) , Davinia Moreno (5) , Hélène Tissoux (2, 6) , Miren del Val (7) , Pierre Voinchet (2) , J. Arnold Lee (8)

1 ARCHE - Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution
2 HNHP - Histoire naturelle de l'Homme préhistorique
3 MNHN - Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle
4 University of Cologne
5 CENIEH - Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana
6 BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM)
7 Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, UPV/EHU
8 IPAS - Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) and the School of Chemistry and Physics

More than 30 years after the first Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dating application to optically bleached quartz grains by Yokoyama et al. (1985), the absence of standardization for reporting methodology and age results remains an obstacle for the development and recognition of the ESR dating method within the Quaternary scientific community. To overcome this issue, the present work proposes some basic guidelines which should hopefully be useful not only for the ESR dating community, but also for any potential reviewers who may not be familiar with the specificities of this field.

Keywords: Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dating; Quartz grains; Aluminium centre; Titanium centre; Equivalent Dose; Dose rate

Domains: Archaeology and Prehistory; Earth Sciences

Mathieu Duval, Jean-Jacques Bahain, Mélanie Bartz, Christophe Falguères, Veronica Guilarte, et al.. Defining minimum reporting requirements for ESR dating of optically bleached quartz grains. Ancient TL, 2017, 35 (1), pp.11-19. ⟨mnhn-03938499⟩