Electron spin resonance (ESR) in archaeological contexts

Abstract

The first ESR dating applications to fossil bones were published in the early 1980s (e.g., Ikeya and Miki, 1980). Given the potential of this kind of material, studies were quickly reoriented toward fossil tooth enamel, which has more suitable characteristics for dating (Grün and Schwarcz, 1987). Then, the method progressively gained in accuracy over the following decades, especially via a better understanding of the ESR signal of fossil enamel and its behavior with the absorbed dose. A major advance in ESR dating of enamel resulted from the introduction of a method combining ESR and U-series data in order to model the uranium (U) uptake into dental tissues, thus constraining the uncertainty of the resulting dose rate (Grün et al., 1988). This definitely helped to convert the method into a valuable tool to date fossil remains beyond the 14C time range