Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T17:01:31.784Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Summarizing a group of 14C dates on the historical time scale: with a worked example from the Late Neolithic of Bavaria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Tom Aitchison ,
Barbara Ottaway  and
Abdulrahman S. Al-Ruzaiza
Tom Aitchison
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ
Barbara Ottaway
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology & Prehistory, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN
Abdulrahman S. Al-Ruzaiza
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

There is a large gap between the fact of a radiocarbon determination and the archaeological answer to the question to which it relates. The first part of the gap is addressed by calibration, that turns a measure of 14C activity into an estimate of a calendar date. Here is a contribution to the second part, by which a set of calibrated dates is made to provide a calendar range for the archaeological events under study.

This note follows ANTIQUITY's usual convention, under which uncalibrated determinations are given in lower-case, b.p., and calibrated dates in small capitals, BP, BC or AD.

Type
Notes
Information
Antiquity , Volume 65 , Issue 246 , March 1991 , pp. 108 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aitchison, T.C., Leese, M., Michczynska, D.J., Mook, W.G., Otlet, R.L., Ottaway, B.S., Pazdur, M.F., Van, J.Plight, Der, Reimer, P.J., Robinson, S.W., Scott, E.M., Stuiver, M. & Wenninger., B. 1989. A comparison of methods used for the calibration of radiocarbon dates, Radiocarbon 31: 846–64. Proceedings of the 13th International Radiocarbon Conference, Dubrovnik, 1988.Google Scholar
Aitchison, T.C., Ottaway, B.S. & Al-RUZAIZA, A.S.. In preparation. Interval estimation of a floruit: non-parametric regression and density estimation in an archaeological context, Applied Statistics.Google Scholar
Aitchison, T.C., Ottaway, B.S. & Scott., E.M. In press. Statistical treatment of groups of related radiocarbon dates, Proceedings of the 2nd symposium on archaeology and I4C, Groningen 1987.Google Scholar
Ottaway, B.S. 1973. Dispersion diagrams: a new approach to the display of 14C dates, Archaeometry 15(1): 5–12.Google Scholar
Ottaway, B.S. 1988. The Galgenberg, a Late Neolithic enclosure in Bavaria, in Burgess, C., Topping, P., Mordant, C. & Maddison, M. (ed.), Enclosures and defences in the Neolithic of Western Europe: 391–418. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. International series 403.Google Scholar
Pearson, G.W., Pilcher, J.R., Baillie, M.G.L, Corbett, D.M. & Qua., F. 1986. High precision 14C measurement of Irish oaks to show the natural 14C variations from AD 1840 to 5210 BC, Radiocarbon 28: 911–34.Google Scholar
Silverman, B.W. 1986. Density estimation for statistics and data analysis. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Watson, G.W. 1964. Smooth regression analysis. Sankhy A 26: 359–72.Google Scholar