The chronology of culture: a comparative assessment of European Neolithic dating approaches

Archaeologists have long sought appropriate ways to describe the duration and floruit of archaeological cultures in statistical terms. Thus far, chronological reasoning has been largely reliant on typological sequences. Using summed probability distributions, the authors here compare radiocarbon dat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Antiquity 2014-12, Vol.88 (342), p.1065-1080
Main Authors: Manning, Katie, Timpson, Adrian, Colledge, Sue, Crema, Enrico, Edinborough, Kevan, Kerig, Tim, Shennan, Stephen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropological methodology
Anthropological research
Archaeology
Bayesian analysis
Bayesian method
Bayesian statistical decision theory
Carbon dating
chronologies
Chronology
Comparative analysis
Culture
Dating
dendrochronology
Europe
Excavation and methods
Laboratory methods
Methodology and general studies
Methods
Neolithic
Neolithic Age
Neolithic period
Prehistory and protohistory
Principal components analysis
Probability distribution
Radiocarbon dating
Reasoning
Studies
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Summary:Archaeologists have long sought appropriate ways to describe the duration and floruit of archaeological cultures in statistical terms. Thus far, chronological reasoning has been largely reliant on typological sequences. Using summed probability distributions, the authors here compare radiocarbon dates for a series of European Neolithic cultures with their generally accepted ‘standard’ date ranges and with the greater precision afforded by dendrochronology, where that is available. The resulting analysis gives a new and more accurate description of the duration and intensity of European Neolithic cultures.
ISSN:0003-598X
1745-1744
DOI:10.1017/S0003598X00115327