Review and assessment of the potential of post-IR IRSL dating methods to circumvent the problem of anomalous fading in feldspar luminescence

Quartz has been the main mineral used for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of sediments over the last decade. The quartz OSL signal, however, has been shown to saturate at relatively low doses of ～200–400 Gy, making it difficult to be used for dating beyond about 200 thou-sand years (ka), unless the environmental dose rate is low. The infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) from feldspars has been shown to continue to grow to higher dose levels than quartz OSL. The application of IRSL dating of feldspars, however, has long been hampered by the anomalous fading effect. Recent progress in understanding anomalous fading of the infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) signals in potassium-feldspar has led to the development of post-IR IRSL (pIRIR) protocols and also a multiple elevated temperature (MET) stimulation (MET-pIRIR) protocol. These procedures have raised the prospect of isolating a non-fading IRSL component for dating Quaternary deposits containing feldspars. In this study, we review the recent progress made on (1) overcoming anomalous fading of feldspar, and (2) the development of pIRIR dating techniques for feldspar. The potential and problems associated with these methods are discussed.     

‘By the charitie of good people’: poverty and neighbourly support in seventeenth century Lancashire

Historians of early-modern poverty have emphasized the ways in which the poor ‘made shift’, reducing or even preventing their dependence on formal poor relief. This article looks at one aspect of that ‘economy of makeshifts’: the casual support of the poor by their neighbours. It uses evidence from a uniquely extensive archive of pauper petitions from Lancashire (1626–1710), many of which contain incidental information about strategies of making shift. The petitions suggest that neighbourly support for the needy was common in Lancashire, both through localized begging and in more stable supportive relationships. Nonetheless, the charity of neighbours could easily be exhausted, leaving those in poverty forced to call upon the more formalized support of the Poor Law.