AFTER demonstrations (Grogler et al., 1960; Kennedy and Knopf, 1960) of feasibility around 1960 thermoluminescence came to fruition as a dating technique during the seventies (Aitken and Fleming, 1972). This was in respect of archaeological pottery, bricks and tiles and also the authenticity testing of art ceramics. The latter application had a particularly powerful impact, creating a "TL revolution" in respect of some ranges of museum exhibits (see, for example, Aitken et al., 1971;Fleming et al., 1971). In broad terms, the accuracy attainable for archaeological dating when satisfactory assessment of the gamma dose-rate from the soil can be made is between 5 and 10% of the age; and for authenticity testing, using around 50 milligrams drilled from an unobtrusive part of the object, between 20 and 30% of the age. Extension to burnt llint from paleolithic sites was initiated (Gbksu et al., 1974) in the mid-seventies thereby giving the possibility of reaching beyond the ten thousand year limit of pottery availability and eventually beyond the fifty thousand year limit of radiocarbon. This latter limit had meant that for important periods of man's development during the glacials and interglacials of the Middle and Lower Paleolithic there was no direct dating available (later this gap was partly filled, in addition to TL, by uranium series dating of stalagmite calcite where it was in close association with man's occupation and by the somewhat problematical amino acid dating of bone).