Bayesian age-depth modelling of Late Quaternary deposits from Wet and Blanche Caves, Naracoorte, South Australia: A framework for comparative faunal analyses

Macken, Amy Claire; Staff, Richard A.; Reed, Elizabeth Helen

doi:10.1016/j.quageo.2013.03.001

Cited by 10 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 47 publications

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“…This approach has been particularly successful for cave deposits with complex depositional histories (e.g. Macken et al 2013), although it has rarely been used in South African archaeological sequences so far (but see Loftus et al 2016). Critically it enables exploration of the timing and tempo of changes in the palaeoenvironmental and cultural record of Wonderwerk Cave in particular, and the LSA in South Africa’s interior in general.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiocarbon Dates Constrain the Timing of Environmental and Cultural Shifts in the Holocene Strata of Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa

Ecker

Brink²,

Chazan³

et al. 2017

Radiocarbon

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Wonderwerk Cave has yielded one of the longest and most complete Holocene Later Stone Age (LSA) records for the arid interior of South Africa. This paper presents the results of a new radiocarbon dating program for Excavation 1 that is explored within a Bayesian model of all existing Wonderwerk Cave radiocarbon (14C) dates for the Holocene. The proposed model, usingPhaseswithin an OxCalSequencemodel, provides robust age estimates for changes in the technological and paleoenvironmental record at the site. The more precise dates allow a comparison of the timing of climate shifts across the interior of southern Africa and begin to allow us to identify whether hiatuses in human occupation, or cultural shifts, are synchronous across broader areas of the subcontinent, or not.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiocarbon Dates Constrain the Timing of Environmental and Cultural Shifts in the Holocene Strata of Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa

Ecker

Brink²,

Chazan³

et al. 2017

Radiocarbon

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The chronology of the earliest Upper Palaeolithic in northern Iberia: New insights from L'Arbreda, Labeko Koba and La Viña

Wood

Arrizabalaga

Camps

et al. 2014

Journal of Human Evolution

149

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Criteria for assessing the quality of Middle Pleistocene to Holocene vertebrate fossil ages

Rodríguez-Rey

Herrando‐Pérez

Gillespie

et al. 2015

Quaternary Geochronology

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Confidence in fossil ages is a recognized constraint for understanding changes in archaeological and palaeontological records. Poor estimates of age can lead to erroneous inferences-such as timing of species arrival, range expansions and extinctions-preventing robust hypothesis testing of the causes and consequences of past events. Therefore, age reliability must be demonstrated before patterns and mechanisms are inferred. Here we present a generalized quality-rating scheme based on a two-stage set of objective criteria: first, our method assesses the reliability of an age regarding the dating procedure, and second, if the age is based on association, it assesses the confidence in its association with the target vertebrate fossil. We developed this quality rating specifically for Australian applications, but it could be applied to other regions and to longer timescales with some modification. Our method ranks ages in four categories of reliability (A* and A are reliable; B and C are unreliable). In our case study of the late Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul, accounting for reliability (i.e., accepting only reliable ages) reduced the number of useful records within chronologies by 70%; for most species, this greatly affects any inferences regarding the timing and possible drivers of extinction. Our method provides a simple, replicable and general tool for assessing the age quality of dated fossils, as well as provides a guide for selecting useful protocols and samples for dating. Disciplines Medicine and Health Sciences | Social and Behavioral Sciences Publication DetailsRodríguez-Reya, M., Herrando-Perez, S., Gillespie, R., Jacobs, Z., Saltréa, F., Brook, B. W., Prideaux, G. J., Roberts, R. present a generalized quality-rating scheme based on a two-stage set of objective criteria: 7 first, our method assesses the reliability of an age regarding the dating procedure, and second, 8 if the age is based on association, it assesses the confidence in its association with the target 9 vertebrate fossil. We developed this quality rating specifically for Australian applications, but 10 it could be applied to other regions and to longer timescales with some modification. Our

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Bayesian age-depth modelling of Late Quaternary deposits from Wet and Blanche Caves, Naracoorte, South Australia: A framework for comparative faunal analyses

Cited by 10 publications

References 47 publications

Radiocarbon Dates Constrain the Timing of Environmental and Cultural Shifts in the Holocene Strata of Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa

Radiocarbon Dates Constrain the Timing of Environmental and Cultural Shifts in the Holocene Strata of Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa

The chronology of the earliest Upper Palaeolithic in northern Iberia: New insights from L'Arbreda, Labeko Koba and La Viña

Criteria for assessing the quality of Middle Pleistocene to Holocene vertebrate fossil ages

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