Abstract

CARVAJAL, Eduar; MONTES, Luis  and  ALMANZA, Ovidio A.. Electron paramagnetic resonance dating of archaeological rests from Checua (Cundinamarca - Colombia). Rev. acad. colomb. cienc. exact. fis. nat. [online]. 2014, vol.38, n.147, pp.124-129. ISSN 0370-3908.

This paper presents the results obtained from using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) to analyse human tooth enamel found at the Checua archaeological site (Cundinamarca, Colombia), located 5° 04' latitude north and 73° 53' longitude east, 3,600 m above sea level and 60 km northeast of Bogotá. The tooth enamel was irradiated with gamma rays and the resulting free radicals were measured using an electron spin resonance (ESR) X-band spectrometer. Comparing the RPE signal intensity curve to the absorbed dose, it was possible to adjust this curve, which allowed us to obtain the mean archaeological dose accumulated in the enamel (D_E) during the period it was buried. The resulting value was 3.20 ± 0.08 Gy. By using the ROSY software, the mean age was estimated at 5021 ± 202 years before present (BP). This age corresponds to human beings who lived in the Quaternary period, Holocene epoch. These results show the EPR technique potential as a tool for dating Quaternary samples in Colombia and open the possibility of using it in stalagmite, calcite, mollusc shell and coral reef samples. This study is the third conducted in Colombia after the thesis work by Carvajal and Sandoval (Sandoval, 2010, Carvajal, 2011).

Keywords : EPR/ESR; tooth enamel; Colombia; archaeological dating.

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