EUBAR: A Database of 14 C Measurements for the European Bronze Age. A Bayesian Analysis of 14 C-Dated Archaeological Contexts from Northern Italy and Southern France

• Published in: Radiocarbon 2014, Vol.56 (2), p.851-869
• Main Authors: Capuzzo, Giacomo, Boaretto, Elisabetta, Barceló, Juan A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0033-8222; 1945-5755
• DOI: 10.2458/56.17453

The chronological framework of European protohistory is mostly a relative chronology based on typology and stratigraphic data. Synchronization of different time periods suffers from a lack of absolute dates; therefore, disagreements between different chronological schemes are difficult to reconcile. An alternative approach was applied in this study to build a more precise and accurate absolute chronology. To the best of our knowledge, we have collected all the published 14 C dates for the archaeological sites in the region from the Ebro River (Spain) to the Middle Danube Valley (Austria) for the period 1800–750 BC. The available archaeological information associated with the 14 C dates was organized in a database that totaled more than 1600 14 C dates. In order to build an accurate and precise chronology, quality selection rules have been applied to the 14 C dates based on both archaeological context and analytical quality. Using the OxCal software and Bayesian analysis, several 14 C time sequences were created following the archaeological data and different possible scenarios were tested in northern Italy and southern France.