The essential question of how to convert radiocarbon determinations -those physical figures so beguilingly expressed in 'radiocarbon years before present' which are not years at all -remains open to debate. In this new contribution, an approach is outlined using Bayesian methods, rather than classical statistics.
One of the questions that archaeologists have always hoped to be able to answer using radiocarbon dating is: 'How long did this activity last?'. It has for some time been accepted that this question cannot adequately be addressed by simply calibrating single radiocarbon determinations. Rather, it is necessary to find means for coherently relating such determinations to one another and to the archaeology from which they came. In addition, most archaeologists are aware that estimation of duration is likely to be greatly afected by the presence of any aberrant determinations ('outliers ') and that they should, therefore, be allowed for in the estimation procedure.In this paper we look at the issues which relate to solving problems of this type and highlight some diflculties associated with one currently available method for approaching them. By adopting a Bayesian approach to estimating duration, it is possible to provide an explicit and coherent framework within which such investigations can take place and whereby each specijk problem can be considered in its own right.In archaeological terms, this paper has, we hope, clarified the problems involved in estimating the duration of a period of time represented by a series of unordered radiocarbon determinations, and in providing estimates of the calendar dates for its beginning and end. These estimates take in any archaeological evidence available, for example, termini antelpost quos (here the arrival of the Spanish in Peru forms a terminus ante quem), and may be repeated when new evidence becomes available. For the first time, we provide an objective method for identifying outliers in the data and documenting the efect of their removal. We have given an example for the Peruvian Chancay culture to demonstrate the potential of this approach.this problem has proved difficult to tackle in the past is that it is extremely hard to make generalisations. No two situations are alike. For the purposes of this paper, however, we choose to make a very simple distinction between those situations where (before obtaining
Summary The excavation of the archaeological site at Nethermills Farm yielded Mesolithic material, including large quantities of carbonised wood and nut fragments, discussed in this paper. Their analysis indicates a pronounced domination of Quercus (oak). This probably means that wood was collected from local woodland in which oak was dominant. A similar pattern – in which wood use reflects local availability – has been seen at other Mesolithic sites and suggests that no resource management was practised at that time.
The Mesolithic site of Nethermills Farm, Crathes, Banchory, was identified from fieldwalking that took place between 1973 and 1977 and it was excavated between 1978 and 1981
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