| Abstract: |
Anatomically modern humans (AMHs) evolved in Africa, the earliest being dated to about 300,000 years ago (ka). Tracing their expansion into the rest of the world was first followed on the basis of traditional archaeological evidence: the recovery of occupation sites that contained what they made, what they gathered and consumed, and rarely, their burials. For the archaeologist, one of the first responsibilities, having excavated and analysed these sites, is to secure a reliable chronology. This can be done for settlement up to about 50 ka by mean of radiocarbon dating. Beyond this point, radiocarbon ceases to be applicable, and other techniques are now available. For example, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, can be applied to material within a range of hundreds of thousands of years such as quartz or feldspar grains from an archaeological sediment, by measuring the amount of emitted light (Rhodes 2011).
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