Dealing with Outliers and Offsets in Radiocarbon Dating

Ramsey, Christopher Bronk

doi:10.1017/s0033822200034093

Cited by 967 publications

(618 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The chronological modelling described in this section has been undertaken using OxCal 4.2 (Bronk Ramsey 1995;2009a;2009b), and IntCal13 (Reimer et al 2013). This study is based on using the relative dating provided by the matrix of archaeological deposits to refine the calibration of a series of radiocarbon dates on samples from those layers.…”

Section: Chronological Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interwoven Strands for Refining the Chronology of the Neolithic Tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo, Serbia

et al. 2016

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The setting and context of the Vinča-Belo Brdo tellThe great tell or settlement mound of Vinča-Belo Brdo sits directly beside the Danube, a little to the south of Belgrade, Serbia (Fig.1). Its eight metres of Late Neolithic deposits span the later sixth to the mid-fifth millennium cal BC, and are underlain by a Starčevo culture occupation of the earlier sixth millennium cal BC (Tasić et al. 2015; in press). The site has given its name to the Vinča culture (or interaction sphere or network; for convenience and familiarity we use the first term here), which extends through the river valleys of the Danube, its tributaries and their catchments, in the northern and central Balkans, from southernmost Hungary and easternmost Croatia through southern Serbia and Kosovo down to northern Macedonia, and from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina eastwards as far as parts of Transylvania in Romania (Fig. 1). Belo Brdo, near the centre of this distribution, appears to have emerged relatively early in the Vinča culture sequence and was clearly, as the largest known tell of the complex, a place of considerable and enduring significance. This was a time, after the initial emergence of a Neolithic way of life in the region, of the spread, consolidation and diversification of settlement, involving the formation of large settlements and tells; the emergence of both larger communities and distinctive households within such sites; the intensification of subsistence; and changing materiality and the expansion of material networks (Chapman 1981;Kaiser and Voytek 1983;Tasić 2009;Tringham and Krstić 1990;Tripković and Milić 2009;Orton 2010). To understand the initiation, formation, duration and ending of Vinča-Belo Brdo is to grasp some of the major features of the development of Neolithic communities in a major swathe of south-east Europe as a whole.

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Section: Chronological Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interwoven Strands for Refining the Chronology of the Neolithic Tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo, Serbia

et al. 2016

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“…Because it is well established that, through the 'old wood' phenomenon (that is, the inbuilt age of wood in a living tree, as opposed to the storage age of a dead tree; e.g., Kurokawa et al, 2003;Vieira et al, 2005), all wood charcoal determinations will predate by an unknown amount of time the archaeological context of interest (e.g. Anderson, 1991;Spriggs and Anderson, 1993), we have opted to apply an outlier correction for charcoal dates, as informed by Bronk-Ramsey (2009b). The correction factor employed is based on the prior knowledge that the site, and thus the wood used, came from a rainforest setting, and applies the following formula: (Exp(1,À10,0), U(0,3),"t") whereby the exponential distribution runs from À10 to 0 with a time-constant of 1, ensuring modification only to those outliers that are older.…”

Section: Excavation Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kumukumu 1, a hilltop site in the Aird Hills: Implications for occupational trends and dynamics in the Kikori River delta, south coast of Papua New Guinea

David

Aplin

Petchey

et al. 2015

Quaternary International

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a b s t r a c tWe report on archaeological excavations undertaken at Kumukumu 1 atop the dense rainforest-clad Aird Hills of the Kikori river delta islands, south coast of Papua New Guinea. Results indicate exploitation of the nearby environment, including the gathering of some 200 million shellfish from riverine habitats at the base of the hill some 600 years ago, and deposition of shell remains onto hilltop middens. We ask what the implications of such a site in a defensive location on the upper, steep hillslope of Kumukumu hill are for regional occupation and dynamics. We conclude that the hinterland-marine fringe islands of the river deltas that include the site of Kumukumu 1 were especially sensitive to heightened crosscultural influences and inter-group raids and competition, leading to accelerated processes of centralisation and aggrandisement among some groups, and the subjugation, fragmentation and dispersal of less powerful neighbouring groups.

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“…The published results, when modelled according with the published phasing, have poor agreement (model not shown), suggesting either a more complex taphonomy than has hither to be been recognised, or perhaps more likely (given the nature of the site) the redeposition of material. The model of the phased development of the site was re-run with the results subject to formal outlier analysis using the prior probability of 0.05 that each measurement was an outlier and the General T model (Bronk Ramsey 2009b). This analysis suggested that several measurements were problematic: OxA-9080, OxA-9159, and AA-29713 were all far too late for their position in the phased development of the site; OxA-9085 and OxA-9083 in contrast were too early for their position in the phased development of the site.…”

Section: Dunasbroc Lewismentioning

confidence: 99%

Stepping Stones to the Neolithic? Radiocarbon Dating the Early Neolithic on Islands Within the ‘Western Seaways’ of Britain

Garrow¹,

Griffiths

Anderson-Whymark

et al. 2017

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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The western seaways -an arc of sea stretching from the Channel Islands in the south, up through the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Man, and the Outer Hebrides to Orkney in the north -have long been seen as crucial to our understanding of the processes which led to the arrival of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland in the centuries around 4000 cal BC. The western seaways have not, however, been considered in detail within any of the recent studies addressing the radiocarbon chronology of the earliest Neolithic in that wider region. This paper presents a synthesis of all existing 5th and 4th millennia cal BC radiocarbon dates from islands within the western seaways, including 50 new results obtained specifically for this study. While the focus here is insular in a literal sense, the project's results have far reaching implications for our understanding of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Britain and Ireland and beyond. The findings broadly fit well with the Gathering Time model of Whittle et al., suggesting that the earliest dated Neolithic in this zone falls into the c. 3900-3700 cal BC bracket. However, it is also noted that our current chronological understanding is based on comparatively few dates spread across a large area. Consequently, it is suggested that both further targeted work and an approach that incorporates an element of typo-chronology (as well as absolute dating) is necessary if we are to move forward our understanding of the processes associated with the appearance of the first Neolithic material culture and practices in this key region.

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Dealing with Outliers and Offsets in Radiocarbon Dating

Cited by 967 publications

References 18 publications

Interwoven Strands for Refining the Chronology of the Neolithic Tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo, Serbia

Interwoven Strands for Refining the Chronology of the Neolithic Tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo, Serbia

Kumukumu 1, a hilltop site in the Aird Hills: Implications for occupational trends and dynamics in the Kikori River delta, south coast of Papua New Guinea

Stepping Stones to the Neolithic? Radiocarbon Dating the Early Neolithic on Islands Within the ‘Western Seaways’ of Britain

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