Luminescence dating is a chronometric technique employed to determine the time elapsed since crystalline materials, such as minerals found in sediments, ceramics, or burned stone, were last exposed to sunlight or heat. The method quantifies the luminescence emitted by these materials upon stimulation by heat (thermoluminescence) or light (optically stimulated luminescence), which represents the total accumulated radiation dose from background radioactivity since the material's last exposure event effectively reset its internal "geological clock." This technique is a significant tool in Quaternary geology and archaeology for establishing absolute chronologies for a wide range of environmental and human activity records spanning timescales from decades to hundreds of thousands of years.