Luminescence Dating of Nuomuhong Culture Ceramics at Talitaliha Site on the Northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Abstract As a daily utensil and artefact, the presence of ceramic at an archaeological site is direct evidence of human activity. While ceramics have been found at numerous sites on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), most have been aged using conventional methods such as typology or radio-carbon dating of associated charcoal and bone. In this study, five sand-tempered grey ceramics from Talitaliha in the Qaidam Basin were dated using quartz and K-feldspar OSL. The reliability of the ceramic OSL ages was determined using six independent radiocarbon samples, three charcoal and three bone, from the same cultural layer. Six additional OSL ages were determined on sandy loess sediments at the Talitaliha site to provide upper and lower limits for the ceramic ages. The ceramic luminescence dating results are in good agreement with the 14C ages and are within the constraints of the stratigraphic OSL ages, suggesting that OSL dating of ceramics has great potential for archaeological research on the QTP. The determined age range for the Talitaliha site was between 3400–2800 cal BP; this fits well with Nuomuhong culture dates from other locations in the Qaidam Basin that range between 3400–2450 cal BP.