Luminescence dating and firing temperature determination of ancient ceramics fragments from the Tunata-hill site in the Churajon archaeological complex in Arequipa, Peru

Ancient pottery fragments from the Tunata-hill site in Churajon archaeological complex, Arequipa, Peru, were dated by means of luminescence techniques such as thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated lumi-nescence (OSL) in order to provide absolute chronology. For TL, additive and regenerative methods were per-formed. For OSL a regenerative method was carried out for IRSL dating. A rigorous description of the study area and its context has been made. The ages of the samples were found to be between 0.50 +/- 0.06 ky and 0.49 +/- 0.03 ky for TL methods, and 0.49 +/- 0.02 ky for OSL methods. On average, the estimated age by TL and OSL techniques is 490 +/- 70 yr (1600 AD and 1460 AD). This means that Churajon ceramics under study would belong to the Late periods which corresponds to the Inca region, and the North sub-region of the Late Churajon phase, and the beginning of European colonization in Peru. X-ray fluorescence technique (XRF) analysis has shown the main presence of Fe (39.5%), Si (30.0%), and Al (10.4%) in fine pottery powder. Furthermore, the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) technique was used to study the firing temperature using the iron signal (Fe3+) as a firing temperature reference. The firing temperature of ceramics was found to be around 550 +/- 50 degrees C.