To get some idea of the site's age, a section of jasper from the Spout Run site was sent to James Feathers, who runs the Luminescence Dating Laboratory at the University of Washington in Seattle.
This, said Feathers, is a dating method based on solid-state physics. Materials absorb energy from natural processes and can store that energy for indefinite periods of time. Exposure to heat can release energy.
According to Feathers, the piece of jasper found along Spout Run was heated, perhaps in a campfire, and it's possible to determine by the proportion of luminescence when that occurred.
"The method has been in use for more than 30 years," Feathers explained, "and has been shown to be accurate against independent dating evidence. Precision is usually 10 percent or better."
The date when that piece of jasper was burned on the Blue Ridge, Chris White said, is about 10,470 B.C.
[Which is pretty interesting to date the settlement but doesn't really provide a date for the circles - MegP Ed.]
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