We are inquiring about the potential archaeological applications of OSL dating. More specifically, we are trying to determine if OSL (or, perhaps, another non-invasive, absolute-dating technique) would be able to determine the date at which the cortex of quartzite cobble was fractured. Recently, we were handed a roughly football-sized quartzite cobble, which has been in a private citizen's collection of artifacts for decades. The cobble is totally unprovenienced and has been totally rinsed clean of whatever sediments originally encased it. However, of note, the cobble is incised with what is unmistakably the profile of a woolly mammoth. This incised drawing could easily be a 19th- or 20th-century forgery of some kind. On the other hand, it may be a piece of Paleoindian art. So, we are trying to determine if there's a non-invasive, absolute dating technique that could determine when the cortex of this particular quartzite cobble was pecked/incised through, to render the mammoth illustration. We look forward to your feedback on this matter. We have already thought about cosmogenics (Beryllium) but that is very destructive. We would destroy the very thing we wish to date.

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