OSL chronology of a Palaeolithic site in a humid subtropical mountainous area of southeast China

The timing of Palaeolithic human activities in South China is still controversial because of the lack of a reliable chronology of archaeological sites. The Longdengshan Palaeolithic site (LPS), located close to the Wuyi Mountain of South China, represents the first discovered and scientifically excavated Middle Palaeolithic site in the Fujian Province. This site is of considerable significance for studying the diffusion and cultural connotation of early Homo sapiens in southern China. In this study, we present optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages obtained from medium-grained quartz collected at the LPS. The single-aliquot regenerative-dose measurements of red soil deposits collected at the same site yielded internally and stratigraphically consistent ages and similar errors, indicating a potential ability of the technique, and also reflecting the influence of various sedimentary facies on the test results. Our results indicate that the 38–63 µm quartz grains were generally partially-bleached and had large values of over-dispersion in the palaeo-reticulated laterites of west Fujian. Some samples yielded unsatisfactory results, suggesting that the degree of bleaching of diluvial and alluvial deposits should be properly assessed before dating. We did not detect any enrichment/depletion of U, Th and radioactive disequilibrium. The effect of chemical weathering on the dose rate estimation was negligible. Therefore, we used a central age model and the maximum age model to calculate the age of two samples, respectively, and the minimum age model to calculate the ages of the rest of the samples. The OSL ages of the samples ranged from 27.09 ± 2.30 ka to 54.65 ± 7.39 ka for the 38–63 µm quartz size fraction, and roughly corresponded to the Marine Isotope Stage 3. In addition, three ages out of five are based on the calculation of minimum ages in this research, which needs to be further verified by other dating methods.