The Contributions of Luminescence Dating of Sediments to Understanding the First Settlement of the Americas

ABSTRACT

Two major criteria for judging the validity of claims for early settlement of the Americas are solid dating by radiometric methods and evidence of stratigraphic integrity. Luminescence dating can provide information on both, not only producing a date but evaluating stratigraphic integrity by means of single-grain dating. Because of these qualities, luminescence has been applied to a large number of early sites. This paper reviews these applications, both for sites in which stratigraphic integrity has been shown and for sites where it has not. Two recent applications, at Parson’s Island in Maryland and at Bastos in Brazil, suggest settlement may have been as early as the Last Glacial Maximum.

KEYWORDS:

• Luminescence dating
• early settlement of Americas
• stratigraphic integrity
• single grain equivalent dose distributions
• Last Glacial Maximum‌

Acknowledgements

All University of Washington dates were processed by the author. I wish to thank all the clients who provided funding for these projects but want to single out three who provided substantial support for my laboratory over the years: Astolfo Araujo, University of São Paulo; Christopher Moore, University of South Carolina; and Joshua Reuther, University of Alaska at Fairbanks. All three read an earlier version of this paper, which benefited from their comments. The paper also benefits from the detailed comments from three reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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James Feathers

James K. Feathers received his PhD from the University of Washington in 1990. He was director of the luminescence dating laboratory at the University of Washington from 1993 through 2022, when the laboratory closed due to his retirement. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles.