Controlled measurements of the optically stimulated luminescence signal from non-conducting, crystalline materials such as quartz and feldspar can provide a means of determining the time since the last heating of a pottery or the last exposure of a layer of sediment to sunlight, the age of the pottery or sediment, in a similar way to thermoluminescence dating. Whereas in the thermoluminescence dating of sediment only part of the latent thermoluminescence signal is bleached by sunlight as the sediment is deposited and allowance must be made during the laboratory measurements for the light insensitive component, optically induced luminescence dating has the advantage of working only with light sensitive traps in the crystal. Optical dating, using blue stimulation of quartz grains from archaeological samples, was undertaken. The dates obtained from the heated materials offered good agreement with the ages derived by typological assessment. Also, the ages of the bleached materials from a hydroponic farm were found to be in satisfactory results with those of radiocarbon dating in addition to a good stratigraphic correlation. We conclude that the optical dating used in here should contribute significantly to future archaeological dating work.