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Abstract

Understanding the timing of the world's first nomadic empire Xiongnu is critical to understanding nomadic politics of the Eurasian past. This study presents a geochronological study conducted on a selection of archeological materials including clay sediment and three potteries from elite Xiongnu tomb at the Noin-Ula Mountains, Mongolia. In order to obtain an accurate OSL chronology, at least two different luminescence methods were applied for clay sediment (e.g., quartz single-grain OSL and pIRIR on the feldspar component of the polymineral fine grains) and for pottery samples (pIRIR to sand-sized K-feldspar and to polymineral fine grains). For the clay sediment, the quartz FMM age of 2160þinspace±þinspace160 a is consistent with independent age control for the site, revealing the time of mixing of clay sediment for construction, while the pIRIR on polymineral fine grains failed to date the timing of construction of the tomb. In contrast, for fired potteries, the pIRIR ages (for preheats between 180 to 270 °C) show a consistency with the existing chronology for the site. The study shows that the advantage of luminescence dating human activities in archeological contexts, e.g., construction of the tomb and firing the pottery, is achieved by the combination of luminescence results from different materials.