Luminescence dating of historical masonry is commonly based on fired bricks as a reliable chronological reference, whereas the application to lime-based mortars requires single-grain optically stimulated luminescence (SG-OSL) approaches to properly address incomplete and heterogeneous signal resetting. This study presents a direct methodological comparison between SG-OSL dating of quartz extracted from lime mortars and coarse-grain OSL dating of fired bricks sampled from the same historical building. SG-OSL measurements were performed on six mortar samples, and representative equivalent dose values were derived from grain-scale dose distributions using established statistical models. The resulting SG-OSL mortar ages were directly compared with coarse-grain OSL ages obtained from associated bricks. For all samples, mortar and brick ages overlap within their $1 \sigma$ uncertainties. SG-OSL ages generally show smaller relative uncertainties, reflecting the improved control on equivalent dose determination provided by singlegrain measurements. These results demonstrate that SG-OSL applied to lime-based mortars yields reliable and internally consistent age estimates and represents a robust and complementary approach to brick OSL dating for reconstructing construction chronologies of historical buildings.
A Methodological Study of SG-OSL Mortar Dating and OSL Brick Dating Applied to Historical Buildings
Galvagno R.
;Castellino P. B.;Reitano R.;Stella G.;Gueli A. M.
2026-01-01
Abstract
Luminescence dating of historical masonry is commonly based on fired bricks as a reliable chronological reference, whereas the application to lime-based mortars requires single-grain optically stimulated luminescence (SG-OSL) approaches to properly address incomplete and heterogeneous signal resetting. This study presents a direct methodological comparison between SG-OSL dating of quartz extracted from lime mortars and coarse-grain OSL dating of fired bricks sampled from the same historical building. SG-OSL measurements were performed on six mortar samples, and representative equivalent dose values were derived from grain-scale dose distributions using established statistical models. The resulting SG-OSL mortar ages were directly compared with coarse-grain OSL ages obtained from associated bricks. For all samples, mortar and brick ages overlap within their $1 \sigma$ uncertainties. SG-OSL ages generally show smaller relative uncertainties, reflecting the improved control on equivalent dose determination provided by singlegrain measurements. These results demonstrate that SG-OSL applied to lime-based mortars yields reliable and internally consistent age estimates and represents a robust and complementary approach to brick OSL dating for reconstructing construction chronologies of historical buildings.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
