Chronology of a late Pleistocene sedimentary sequence at Lommel (Belgium): Insights from luminescence profiling and quartz OSL dating

The Campine region of NE Belgium forms part of the western European Coversand Belt and preserves an important record of Late Pleistocene landscape change and human occupation. At the Lommel–Molse Nete geo-archaeological site, this study uses portable OSL (pOSL) profiling and quartz OSL dating to refine the chronology and depositional evolution of a stratified coversand sequence and place its archaeological record within a regional palaeoenvironmental framework. A ∼ 2.30 m succession was subdivided into fluvial (Unit A), fluvio-aeolian (Unit B) and aeolian (Unit C) deposits. pOSL profiling revealed pronounced luminescence changes corresponding to the main lithostratigraphic boundaries. Unit A yielded a minimum OSL age of 211 ± 18 ka, demonstrating a substantially older depositional phase than the overlying succession. Unit B yielded ages of approximately 25–18 ka, broadly consistent with Older Coversands I, while the gravel horizon at its top is tentatively correlated with the Beuningen Gravel Bed. Unit C yielded ages of approximately 17–13 ka. Although OSL does not resolve the individual classical coversand subdivisions within Unit C, lithological and pOSL differences, together with archaeological evidence associated with the C4/Usselo Soil horizon, support their tentative identification. At this scale, OSL provides a broader chronological framework rather than independently resolving each subdivision. Together, the OSL and pOSL results constrain the main depositional phases and provide a chronological framework for interpreting Late Pleistocene landscape evolution and the archaeological record at Lommel–Molse Nete in a regional context.