Dating by thermoluminescence onlince dating
10-Dec-2019 09:58
This is adequate for the purposes of authentication where the question is whether the piece was fired in antiquity or recently; it will not differentiate, say, between a classic Greek terra cotta and a Roman copy.
In some categories of objects, from China, for example, the actual age is quite precisely known for short-lived styles, and it is possible to work "backwards" to get information about the environment in many parts of the world, and some other parameters not usually measurable for art objects.
Since the university laboratories involved with TL are research facilities, they generally will not accept art objects for authentication on a routine basis.
Much stoneware is not so hard as porcelain and may be sampled by drilling.
The clay cores from lost wax metal castings may readily be tested.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to achieve this precision for the majority of art objects.
Among the reasons for this is the small amount of material that may be taken for testing.It was employed in the 1950's as a method for radiation dose measurement, and soon was proposed for archaeological dating.