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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
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

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
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1991

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References

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