Dosimetry by Thermoluminescence: Datation of Peruvian Pottery

Natural radioactivity can produce measurable quantities of radiation damage in rocks and buried pottery and its gradual accumulation in time gives us a “clock” which can be used for datation in Geology and Archaeology. Thermoluminescence (TL) is used to estimate the accumulation of radiation damage in pottery. In this paper we present first results in the datation of some of the sherds coming from the archaeological site Piruro, Tantamayo, Huánuco, situated at 3800 m of altitude in the Peruvian Andes, excavated by Rozenberg and Bonnier. Two of the sherds, the 3063 and the 3071, come from the same layer and have the ages 910±140 and 840±100 respectively which give for the context the age 870 (±30, ±90) A.D. 1110. Other two sherds, the 3131 and the 3162 have the ages 520±60 (A.D. 1460) and 580±80 (A.D. 1400) respectively. All ages are in years refered to 1980.