Thermoluminescence (TL) dating development can be divided into three stages. In the first part, TL method was applied to ancient pottery and other baked clay; the detection of forgeries of ceramics was significant. Later TL has been used with non-pottery materials, such as heated flints from paleolithic fireplaces or igneous rocks from recent volcanic events. More investigations on the physical background of TL dating were done, and problems, like anomalous fading, could be circumvented. Now TL dating has also been extended to unburnt calcite and sediments; additional methods, like electron spin resonance (ESR), are used with TL in dating.