The Case for Radiocarbon Dating and Bayesian Analysis in Historical Archaeology

Thompson, Victor D.; Jefferies, Richard; Moore, Christopher

doi:10.1007/s41636-018-0152-5

Cited by 20 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Clearly, acquiring many more secure and absolute radiocarbon dates from contexts associated with trade beads and other chronologically distinct assemblages will help confirm Ball and Warminster's dates of occupation and refine the larger contact-era chronology for the region, including inferences about spatial and temporal trade good distributions. Such independent, refined chronologies are a necessary precursor to further systematic assessment of absolute dates for historical sites and associated material culture through radiocarbon dating, both in Iroquoia and North America more broadly (see also Thompson et al 2019).…”

Section: Warminster As Cahiagué: History Of the Debatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Until quite recently, radiocarbon dating has been underused to resolve questions about historical or contact-era events in North American archaeology. Because of the perceived security of dates derived from trade good assemblages (e.g., Bradley 2007; Fitzgerald 1990; Kenyon and Kenyon 1983) and a reliance on canonical telling and retelling of the ethnohistoric record (e.g., Tooker 1964; Trigger 1969, 1976), archaeologists have only recently begun to evaluate the efficacy of absolute dating techniques for linking the archaeological record to historically documented events (e.g., Manning et al 2018; Thompson et al 2019). One such event occurred in the summer of AD 1615 (all calendar dates in this article are AD), when Samuel de Champlain visited a village he called Cahiagué en route to assist an assembled party of Wendat (Huron) warriors in their raid against the Onondaga (Biggar 1922–1936:3:49).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Contact-Era Chronology Building in Iroquoia: Age Estimates for Arendarhonon Sites and Implications for Identifying Champlain's Cahiagué

et al. 2019

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Radiocarbon dating is rarely used in historical or contact-era North American archaeology because of idiosyncrasies of the calibration curve that result in ambiguous calendar dates for this period. We explore the potential and requirements for radiocarbon dating and Bayesian analysis to create a time frame for early contact-era sites in northeast North America independent of the assumptions and approximations involved in temporal constructs based on trade goods and other archaeological correlates. To illustrate, we use Bayesian chronological modeling to analyze radiocarbon dates on short-lived samples and a post from four Huron-Wendat Arendarhonon sites (Benson, Sopher, Ball, and Warminster) to establish an independent chronology. We find that Warminster was likely occupied in 1615–1616, and so is the most likely candidate for the site of Cahiagué visited by Samuel de Champlain in 1615–1616, versus the other main suggested alternative, Ball, which dates earlier, as do the Sopher and Benson sites. In fact, the Benson site seems likely to date ~50 years earlier than currently thought. We present the methods employed to arrive at these new, independent age estimates and argue that absolute redating of historic-era sites is necessary to accurately assess existing interpretations based on relative dating and associated regional narratives.

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Section: Warminster As Cahiagué: History Of the Debatementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Contact-Era Chronology Building in Iroquoia: Age Estimates for Arendarhonon Sites and Implications for Identifying Champlain's Cahiagué

et al. 2019

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“…To further refine the exact temporal components of the excavated deposits, artifacts, and features of this site, we conducted a Bayesian analysis of 10 14 C dates associated with Spanish period features. While the mission itself was established in the early 1600s, the results of this research indicate that deposits sampled represent the very tail end of the Mission period along the Georgia coast, AD 1660-1684 (Thompson et al 2019). At this point, we have a good understanding of the temporal position of these deposits; however, there is still the possibility of an earlier Spanish mission on the island, as well as a later Yamasee occupation.…”

Section: The Sapelo Shell Ring Complexmentioning

confidence: 75%

Exploring the Guale Village and Spanish Mission Occupations at the Sapelo Shell Ring Complex Through Bayesian Analysis

Thompson¹,

Jefferies

Moore

2020

Radiocarbon

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Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon (14C) dates in North American archaeology is increasing, especially among archaeologists working in deeper time. However, historical archaeologists have been slow to embrace these new techniques, and there have been only a few examples of the incorporation of calendar dates as informative priors in Bayesian models in such work in the United States. To illustrate the value of Bayesian approaches to sites with both substantial earlier Native American occupations as well as a historic era European presence, we present the results of our Bayesian analysis of 14C dates from the earlier Guale village and the Mission period contexts from the Sapelo Shell Ring Complex (9MC23) in southern Georgia. Jefferies and Moore have explored the Spanish Mission period deposits at this site to better understand the Native American interactions with the Spanish during the 16th and 17th centuries along the Georgia Coast. Given the results of our Bayesian modeling, we can say with some degree of confidence that the deposits thus far excavated and sampled contain important information dating to the 17th-century mission on Sapelo Island. In addition, our modeling of new dates suggests the range of the pre-Mission era Guale village. Based on these new dates, we can now say with some degree of certainty which of the deposits sampled likely contain information that dates to one of the critical periods of Mission period research, the AD 1660–1684 period that ushered in the close of mission efforts on the Georgia Coast.

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“…With the growing sophistication in radiometric dating and the development and use of Bayesian techniques across the southeast and within historical archaeology (e.g., Thompson and Krus 2018; Thompson et al 2019), high-resolution, high-precision chronologies are allowing us to achieve a more refined understanding of the historical contexts of early colonial encounters. High-resolution absolute chronologies facilitate an appreciation for the temporality and rhythms of these processes, which are often messy, heterogeneous, and not easily fit into essentialized categories of process.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the critical timespan encompassing the European settlement of North America (sixteenth through eighteenth centuries), calibrated radiocarbon dates intercept multiple points along the radiocarbon calibration curve and exhibit wide ranges of error spread across hundreds of years, foiling attempts to resolve time via radiocarbon determinations. Bayesian chronological modeling, however, combined with laboratory advances in radiocarbon dating (e.g., AMS dating), is allowing archaeologists to successfully use radiocarbon dating as an effective method of establishing high-resolution chronological frameworks for this critical time period (e.g., Ames and Brown 2019; Hill et al 2018; Manning and Hart 2019; Manning et al 2018, 2019; Thompson, Jefferies, and Moore 2019). Here, we contribute to this growing body of work by presenting a case of Indigenous endurance and resilience that has long been obfuscated by the difficulties of absolute dating and the uncritical reliance on materially based chronologies and typologies.…”

Section: Toward Absolute Temporalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enduring Traditions and the (Im)materiality of Early Colonial Encounters in the Southeastern United States

Holland‐Lulewicz

Thompson

Wettstaed³

et al. 2020

Am. Antiq.

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Hernando de Soto's expedition through the southeastern United States between 1539 and 1543 is often regarded as a watershed moment for the collapse of Indigenous societies across the region. Historical narratives have proposed that extreme depopulation as a result of early contact destabilized Indigenous economies, politics, networks, and traditions. Although processes of depopulation and transformation were certainly set in motion by this and earlier colonial encounters, the timing, temporality, and heterogeneous rhythms of postcontact Indigenous histories remain unclear. Through the integration of radiocarbon and archaeological data from the Mississippian earthen platform mound at Dyar (9GE5) in central Georgia, we present a case of Indigenous endurance and resilience in the Oconee Valley that has long been obfuscated by materially based chronologies and typologies. Bayesian chronological modeling suggests that Indigenous Mississippian traditions persisted for up to 130 years beyond contact with European colonizers. We argue that advances in modeling radiocarbon dates, along with meaningful consultation/collaboration with descendant communities, can contribute to efforts that move us beyond a reliance on materially based chronologies that can distort and erase Indigenous histories.

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The Case for Radiocarbon Dating and Bayesian Analysis in Historical Archaeology

Cited by 20 publications

References 26 publications

Contact-Era Chronology Building in Iroquoia: Age Estimates for Arendarhonon Sites and Implications for Identifying Champlain's Cahiagué

Contact-Era Chronology Building in Iroquoia: Age Estimates for Arendarhonon Sites and Implications for Identifying Champlain's Cahiagué

Exploring the Guale Village and Spanish Mission Occupations at the Sapelo Shell Ring Complex Through Bayesian Analysis

Enduring Traditions and the (Im)materiality of Early Colonial Encounters in the Southeastern United States

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