Fast and slow science and the Palaeolithic dating game

Pettitt, Paul

doi:10.15184/aqy.2019.110

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Although tempting to use SPD to investigate some of archaeology's grand challenges, at present SPD analysis is best suitable (and eminently able) to help establish hypotheses, rather than test them. Following Cunningham and MacEachern (2016; see also Pettitt, 2019), we therefore urge for a considered pause in SPD analyses, to allow time to carefully refocus on understanding those sedimentary processes that create the observed archaeological record. This is the more difficult route, but it is the correct one.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Across the entire discipline, we recommend those methods of sampling, recording and analysis that specifically support the integration of archaeological, geological and sedimentary data in the interpretative process (see also Phillips, 2013, p. 133). Such progress would begin to allow regional correlations or site comparisons (i) to be founded on geomorphic and sedimentary principles, and (ii) to include one or more sources of independent proxy data (e.g., Schüpbach et al, 2015; Williams et al, 2009), and/or (iii) one or more dating techniques (e.g., Bubenzer et al, 2007; Carleton & Groucutt, 2019; Pettitt, 2019), together with providing greater confidence in the interpretations and their significance.…”

Section: How To Improve the Use Of Spd And “Big Data” For Exploring Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sedimentary unknowns constrain the current use of frequency analysis of radiocarbon data sets in forming regional models of demographic change

Ward

Larcombe

2021

Geoarchaeology

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Statistical manipulation of large radiometric data sets (big data) is increasingly applied to those grand challenges in archaeology that relate to past human‐behavioural dynamics and includes frequency analysis of radiocarbon ages (summed probability distributions [SPDs]). Australian SPD studies use the radiocarbon database “AustArch” to examine regional‐ and continental‐scale demographic change. We review Australian studies, focussing on sampling bias and taphonomic bias, finding that (i) time‐averaged radiometric data cannot simply be correlated across regions, and (ii) sedimentology imposes genuine constraints upon what can be known. Internationally, flaws in SPD use occur in all main research phases, and most importantly, at the initial phase of defining research questions, logic and general approach. Major problems stem from not planning to obtain a sound understanding of the variability of past sedimentary environments, potential occupation sites and site formation processes. Thus, cultural inferences are too often made from archaeological data without due consideration of the natural processes that may explain the data. Highlighting exemplar studies, we present practical approaches to improve SPD use for exploring changes in demography, aimed at reducing uncertainties and reconnecting archaeological, chronological, geological and sedimentary data. Most important is to increase understanding of physical processes and their control on the archaeological record.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: How To Improve the Use Of Spd And “Big Data” For Exploring Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedimentary unknowns constrain the current use of frequency analysis of radiocarbon data sets in forming regional models of demographic change

Ward

Larcombe

2021

Geoarchaeology

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“…Not surprisingly, bone yields the highest rates of 14 C dating failure among datable materials due to poor preservation and contamination [30]. Overall, the application of different physicochemical treatments to remove those contaminants prior to 14 C dating (collectively known as 'pretreatment') has been long recognized as a challenging enterprise [30][31][32][33]. Ever since the Nobel-Prize winning conception of 14 C dating by Willard Libby [34], Libby himself foresaw that bone '… is a poor prospect [for 14 C dating] for two reasons: the carbon content of bone is extremely low; and it is extremely likely to have suffered alteration' [35, p. 45], [36].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bone need not remain an elephant in the room for radiocarbon dating

Herrando‐Pérez

2021

R. Soc. open sci.

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Radiocarbon ( 14 C) analysis of skeletal remains by accelerator mass spectrometry is an essential tool in multiple branches of science. However, bone 14 C dating results can be inconsistent and not comparable due to disparate laboratory pretreatment protocols that remove contamination. And, pretreatments are rarely discussed or reported by end-users, making it an ‘elephant in the room’ for Quaternary scientists. Through a questionnaire survey, I quantified consensus on the reliability of collagen pretreatments for 14 C dating across 132 experts (25 countries). I discovered that while more than 95% of the audience was wary of contamination and would avoid gelatinization alone (minimum pretreatment used by most 14 C facilities), 52% asked laboratories to choose the pretreatment method for them, and 58% could not rank the reliability of at least one pretreatment. Ultrafiltration was highly popular, and purification by XAD resins seemed restricted to American researchers. Isolating and dating the amino acid hydroxyproline was perceived as the most reliable pretreatment, but is expensive, time-consuming and not widely available. Solid evidence supports that only molecular-level dating accommodates all known bone contaminants and guarantees complete removal of humic and fulvic acids and conservation substances, with three key areas of progress: (i) innovation and more funded research is required to develop affordable analytical chemistry that can handle low-mass samples of collagen amino acids, (ii) a certification agency overseeing dating-quality control is needed to enhance methodological reproducibility and dating accuracy among laboratories, and (iii) more cross-disciplinary work with better 14 C reporting etiquette will promote the integration of 14 C dating across disciplines. Those developments could conclude long-standing debates based on low-accuracy data used to build chronologies for animal domestications, human/megafauna extirpations and migrations, archaeology, palaeoecology, palaeontology and palaeoclimate models.

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“…Finding the earliest example of a phenomenon, as Pettitt (2019) notes, is a classic archaeological trope, and one well loved by the media: the earliest pyramid, the first domesticated dog and the initial arrival of a new species, such as H. sapiens , in a region, to name some popular examples. The recent publication of new dates and interpretations of fossil bones from the Apidima Cave in Greece provides another example of the central importance of dating (in this case, uranium-series radiometric methods) for the interpretation and significance of archaeological finds (Harvati et al 2019).…”

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confidence: 99%

From the wisdom of old age to a wider debate

Witcher

2019

Antiquity

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Fast and slow science and the Palaeolithic dating game

Cited by 4 publications

References 7 publications

Sedimentary unknowns constrain the current use of frequency analysis of radiocarbon data sets in forming regional models of demographic change

Sedimentary unknowns constrain the current use of frequency analysis of radiocarbon data sets in forming regional models of demographic change

Bone need not remain an elephant in the room for radiocarbon dating

From the wisdom of old age to a wider debate

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