Ceramics-Silikáty 47 (3) 94-99 (2003)

THERMOLUMINESCENCE ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATING OF POTTERY IN THE EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS ZONE

M. A. Sekkina, M. A. El Fiki, S. A. Nossair, N. R. Khalil

The paper deals with the thermoluminescence (TL) dating of ancient Egyptian pottery taken from a site in the Giza pyramids zone. To ensure accurate dating, the annual dose rate and archaeological dose of the basic equation were obtained using g-spectrometer with a hyper-pure germanium detector. The annual dose rate was 3.519 ± 0.131 mGy/year. The age of the pottery shreds was calculated by an additive dose method giving a mean value of age 4388 ± 166 years. This age is consistent with that estimated by archaeological tombs attributed to the fourth dynasty in the Old Kingdom. The uncertainty of the TL dating is much lower than the age range predicted by archaeological investigation.

Keywords: Ceramics, Archaeometry, Thermoluminescence