TY - JOUR
T1 - Dating of prehistoric caves sediments and flints using 10Be and 26Al in quartz from Tabun Cave (Israel)
T2 - Progress report
AU - Boaretto, E.
AU - Berkovits, D.
AU - Hass, M.
AU - Hui, S. K.
AU - Kaufman, A.
AU - Paul, M.
AU - Weiner, S.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Prof. A. Ronen and Dr. A. Tsatskin, Haifa University, for their advice and help in collecting the samples. This project was funded in part by the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science at the Weizmann Institute.
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - There is an important need to develop additional dating methods beyond the 14C limit and independent of thermoluminescence (TL) and electron spin resonance (ESR). We propose to apply the method of burial dating to prehistoric sites using the decay of in situ produced radioisotopes 10Be and 26Al. The Tabun Cave, Mt. Carmel (Israel) has a sedimentary sequence which represents the type section for about the last 800,000 years in the Levant. The sediments in the cave are mainly of aeolian origin and are rich in quartz. Flint tools are also found in the sediments. Sediment samples and flint tools were selected from the same layer. Physical and chemical procedures to extract 10Be and 26Al atoms from the quartz fraction of the sediments and from the flint samples were developed, while measuring the natural Al levels as a monitor of the atmospheric component of the cosmogenic nuclides. AMS measurements were performed at the 14UD Pelletron Koffler Accelerator Laboratory, Weizmann Institute, and sensitivities of the order of 1 × 10-14, in isotopic abundances for both 10Be and 26Al respectively (corresponding to ∼5×105 atoms) were obtained. First, measurements of a number of Tabun Cave sediment samples and flints show that 10Be and 26Al analyses have the potential for dating prehistoric cave sediments, provided problems relating to the presence of relatively large amounts of stable Al can be solved, as well as obtaining a better understanding of the burial history of the flints prior to being brought into the cave.
AB - There is an important need to develop additional dating methods beyond the 14C limit and independent of thermoluminescence (TL) and electron spin resonance (ESR). We propose to apply the method of burial dating to prehistoric sites using the decay of in situ produced radioisotopes 10Be and 26Al. The Tabun Cave, Mt. Carmel (Israel) has a sedimentary sequence which represents the type section for about the last 800,000 years in the Levant. The sediments in the cave are mainly of aeolian origin and are rich in quartz. Flint tools are also found in the sediments. Sediment samples and flint tools were selected from the same layer. Physical and chemical procedures to extract 10Be and 26Al atoms from the quartz fraction of the sediments and from the flint samples were developed, while measuring the natural Al levels as a monitor of the atmospheric component of the cosmogenic nuclides. AMS measurements were performed at the 14UD Pelletron Koffler Accelerator Laboratory, Weizmann Institute, and sensitivities of the order of 1 × 10-14, in isotopic abundances for both 10Be and 26Al respectively (corresponding to ∼5×105 atoms) were obtained. First, measurements of a number of Tabun Cave sediment samples and flints show that 10Be and 26Al analyses have the potential for dating prehistoric cave sediments, provided problems relating to the presence of relatively large amounts of stable Al can be solved, as well as obtaining a better understanding of the burial history of the flints prior to being brought into the cave.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0168-583X(00)00349-9
DO - 10.1016/S0168-583X(00)00349-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0034291248
SN - 0168-583X
VL - 172
SP - 767
EP - 771
JO - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
JF - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
IS - 1-4
ER -