ABSTRACT
The application of thermoluminescence (TL) techniques to the dating of pottery from The Hirsel was performed initially in 1980 and a further set of samples was tested in 1984. The differentiation of the pottery on the basis of form or fabric had proved problematic and the purpose of the work was to evaluate the potential of TL dating to aid an understanding of the chronological range of the sites and generic fabric types. In addition to sherds selected from the large body of excavated medieval pottery, two sherds of prehistoric fabric were tested. Although nearly 30 years has elapsed since this work was completed, the procedures applied then can still be considered to have been robust and subsequent developments in the procedures have not invalidated them. In fact, elements of the procedures developed during the original project work were subsequently adopted in the currently used optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) procedures. A full scientific report is available in the archive; this account of the work is based on the experimental report originally produced in 1984 and the opportunity has been taken to refer to more recent research that is relevant to the original experimental work.
