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Strategy of combined ESR and U-series dating of tooth enamel for the present work, in Shao (2011) modified from Bahain et al. (2002).
Source publication
Fossil bones and teeth usually are very common archeological findings. At many sites these remains, such as bones bearing cut marks, may provide unequivocal evidence for human occupation. Hence bones and teeth provide the ideal targets for directly dating of archeological levels. Combined ESR/U-series dating of fossil teeth has been increasingly us...
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Citations
... If the sample has a structural alteration, its characteristic radiation properties will be affected and cause wrong results. Because, all teeth remain structures can be altered depending on the fossilization processes, and the burial environment can lead to mineralogical and chemical composition changes such as the formation of new minerals and disintegration of some mineral phase [35][36][37][38]. Most teeth include significantly more dentin than enamel and therefore dentin tissue is considered as less chemically resistant than enamel [39][40][41][42]. ...
In this study, a bovine dentin, from a material collection which was excavated in Nevşehir–Ürgüp, Turkey, was used. This dentin sample was prepared in the laboratory using cutting, cleaning, grinding, and separating processes, respectively. The obtained dentin aliquots were irradiated with multiply radiation doses between 50 Gy and 2 kGy by 60Co-gamma irradiator. The dosimetric properties and the radiation dose of this sample were determined using the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) method. During the measurements, the EPR spectra were recorded at four different temperatures (4 K, 50 K, 100 K, and 298 K) using X-Band ESR spectrometer. By these spectra, it was determined that the radiation-induced paramagnetic radical was occurred, and the accumulated radiation dose was calculated to be (12.404 ± 0.48) Gy. Also, this sample was analyzed in terms of microstructure and porosity using the field emission scanning electron microscopy, elemental composition using the energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry, mineralogical composition using the X-ray diffraction, and chemical bonding using the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. As a result of all these measurements, it was understood that this sample had a single-phase hydroxyapatite crystal.
In this work, two cow teeth collected from the Niğde–Köşk Höyük excavation site in Turkey were studied for characterization and dosimetric purposes. Each tooth sample was prepared by applying mechanical and chemical methods to obtain the enamel fractions. To do this, mineralogical and elemental concentration properties of the tooth enamels were investigated by performing X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray measurements (SEM–EDX). It was found that the enamel structures contained a highly hydroxyapatite crystalline without any characteristic impurities. The dose response of the tooth enamels was determined by using the electron spin resonance (ESR) method. Absorbed radiation doses were calculated as (26.05 ± 0.15) Gy and (25.48 ± 0.18) Gy by the additive dose method using both natural radiation doses and artificial irradiation doses of the enamel samples. It is concluded that these samples could be used to reconstruct radiation doses. This result can be considered as a precursor for future ESR dosimetry/dating studies of other fossil teeth at this excavation site.
