Abstract

OSL dating on sedimentary quartz grains from two archaeological sites in Korea, called Hahwagye-ri and Hwadae-ri, was undertaken to aid archaeological interpretation for the migratory routes of the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic people in Korea. The Hahwagye-ri site is located on a river terrace of the North Han river at Kangwon prefecture and the Hwadae-ri is located on a river terrace of the Imjin river at Gyeonggi prefecture, both in the central region of Korean Peninsula. From the results of excavation conducted for recent two years, archaeologists strongly suggest that these areas would be an ideal camping place with relatively long-term residence for the Palaeolithic and/or Mesolithic foragers to get food resources by means of collecting, fishing and hunting. In order to check the quartz OSL results on the sediments at those excavation sites, radiocarbon dating was also carried out on a small series of finely layered charcoal samples. The OSL ages obtained showed a good stratigraphic correlation and were found to be in satisfactory agreement with those of the radiocarbon dating, implying that the incomplete bleaching of quartz grains, which is usually observed from fluvially deposited sediments, is not significant for these samples. These consistent ages also suggest that the quartz OSL dating can provide reliable age estimates in case that there are not enough materials suitable for other conventional tools for dating archaeologically important sediment layers. The resultant ages may provide important and useful chronological information for the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic culture in Korean.

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