DUST CAVE REVISITED: A BAYESIAN REANALYSIS OF THE RADIOCARBON RECORD

2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
David K. Thulman
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Bayesian Statistics ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Middle Archaic ◽  
Dust Cave ◽  
Cultural Components

The Dust Cave cultural chronology and radiocarbon sequence is one of the most important in southeastern North America. In their initial interpretation, the excavators were unable to separate the dates of the early and later strata in ways that facilitate their use for defining the associated cultural components. Here the sequence is reevaluated using Bayesian statistics, one additional date, and assessment of potential outliers. The results produce a useable sequence of non-overlapping cultural components (within the uncertainties of radiocarbon dating) that will improve our understanding the Paleoindian and Early and Middle Archaic cultural chronology in the Southeast.

Radiocarbon Dating and Archeology in North America

Science ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 155 (3759) ◽  
pp. 165-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating

scholarly journals The Bayesian Inferential Paradigm in Archaeology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Otarola-Castillo ◽  
Meissa G Torquato ◽  
Caitlin E. Buck
Keyword(s):  
Bayesian Statistics ◽  
Null Hypothesis ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Significance Testing ◽  
Simple Explanation ◽  
Spatial Analyses ◽  
Null Hypothesis Significance Testing ◽  
Statistical Framework ◽  
Research Problems

Archaeologists often use data and quantitative statistical methods to evaluate their ideas. Although there are various statistical frameworks for decision-making in archaeology and science in general, in this chapter, we provide a simple explanation of Bayesian statistics. To contextualize the Bayesian statistical framework, we briefly compare it to the more widespread null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) approach. We also provide a simple example to illustrate how archaeologists use data and the Bayesian framework to compare hypotheses and evaluate their uncertainty. We then review how archaeologists have applied Bayesian statistics to solve research problems related to radiocarbon dating and chronology, lithic, ceramic, zooarchaeological, bioarchaeological, and spatial analyses. Because recent work has reviewed Bayesian applications in archaeology from the 1990s up to 2017, this work considers the relevant literature published since 2017.

scholarly journals Scimitar cat (Homotherium serum Cope) from southwestern Alberta, Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatyanna Ewald ◽  
L.V. Hills ◽  
Shayne Tolman ◽  
Brian Kooyman
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
North America ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Geographic Context ◽  
Beach Site

Skull and tooth fragments of Homotherium serum recently recovered from the Wally’s Beach site (DhPg-8) in southwestern Alberta provide the first indications that scimitar cat populated the area of the St. Mary Reservoir. Accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating provides a calibrated age (2σ) of 12 715 – 12 655 cal. years BP. This is the fourth known occurrence of the species in Canada, the first outside of Yukon, and currently the youngest precisely dated occurrence of the species in North America. Well-preserved dentition combined with the temporal and geographic context allows the sample to be identified as H. serum. The specimen is significant as it represents an extension of the geographic and chronological range of the species.

Chronology, climate and marine record. The Devensian Stage: its development, limits and substages

1977 ◽  
Vol 280 (972) ◽  
pp. 107-118 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Geological Society ◽  
Glacial Stage ◽  
Absolute Dating ◽  
Boundary Limits ◽  
Nw Europe ◽  
Correlation Tables ◽  
The Last Glacial

The name Devensian for the last glacial stage of the British Pleistocene arose from the attempt of the Quaternary subcommittee of the Stratigraphic Committee of the Geological Society of London to define the divisions of the British Quaternary and to draw up correlation tables. The name of the stage derives from the location of the stratotype. Although the stage is broadly equivalent to the Weichselian of NW Europe and the Wisconsinan of North America, exact equivalence of the boundary limits and of substages in the British sequence to overseas divisions should not be assumed. As a means of correlation, radiocarbon dating is of great use in the later half of the stage, and a few ‘enriched’ dates help in a few millennia before 50 000 B.P. No other methods of absolute dating have yet been applied, and the possibility of doing these on the land-based Devensian deposits is remote. Significant recognizable events in a glacial stage are provided by interstadials. Claimed interstadials in the Weichselian of NW Europe are briefly examined, and the evidence for interstadials in the British Isles is summarily presented and compared as far as possible with the continental succession. On the question of when, in the Devensian, the British area was physically ‘glacierized’, it is claimed that so far there is no evidence for this in the Early Devensian. The timing and duration of the well-established Late Devensian glaciation is discussed, and a word of caution is sounded against regarding this as synchronous throughout the area.

Radiocarbon dating of small terrestrial gastropod shells in North America

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 519-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Pigati ◽  
Jason A. Rech ◽  
Jeffrey C. Nekola
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Terrestrial Gastropod

Chronology and Stratigraphy at Dust Cave, Alabama

2004 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 533-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah C. Sherwood ◽  
Boyce N. Driskell ◽  
Asa R. Randall ◽  
Scott C. Meeks
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Organization ◽  
River Valley ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Tennessee River ◽  
Tennessee River Valley ◽  
Beaver Lake ◽  
Dust Cave ◽  
Cultural Components ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Habitation Site

Dust Cave (1Lu496) is a habitation site in a karstic vestibule in the middle Tennessee River Valley of Northern Alabama. The cave, periodically occupied over 7,000 years, contains well-preserved bone and botanical materials and exhibits microstratigraphy and intact occupation surfaces. The chronostratigraphic framework for Dust Cave is based on 43 14C dates, temporally diagnostic artifacts, and detailed geoarchaeological analysis. In a broad sense, five cultural components are defined and designated: Quad/Beaver Lake/Dalton (10,650–9200 cal B.C.), Early Side-Notched (10,000–9000 cal B.C.), Kirk Stemmed (8200–5800 cal B.C.), Eva/Morrow Mountain (6400 to 4000 cal B.C.), and Benton (4500–3600 cal B.C.). Microstratigraphic and artifact analyses indicate that the primary differences in the deposits over time relate to intensity of activity and spatial organization with regard to changing conditions in the cave, not to the types of activities. Geomorphic transformations influenced the timing of occupation at Dust Cave, especially the initial occupation. The chronostratigraphy provides a framework for assessing the stratigraphic separation of Dalton and Early Side-Notched materials, the shift in technology from blades to bifacial tools, and the context of detailed flora and fauna evidence. These remains provide unique insights into forager adaptations in the Midsouth from the end of the Pleistocene through the first half of the Holocene.

scholarly journals Late Holocene cryptotephra from Cascade Lake, Alaska: supporting data for a 21,000-year multi-chronometer Bayesian age model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren J. Davies ◽  
Britta J. L. Jensen ◽  
Darrell S. Kaufman
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Major Element ◽  
White River ◽  
The North ◽  
Arctic Alaska ◽  
Age Model ◽  
First Time ◽  
Reference Samples

Abstract. Multiple chronometers can be employed for dating Holocene palaeoenvironmental records, each with its own inherent strengths and weaknesses. Radiocarbon dating is one of the most widely used techniques for producing chronologies, but its application at high-latitude sites can be problematic. Here, cryptotephra identified in the Late Holocene portion of a core from Cascade Lake, Arctic Alaska, resolve a divergence identified between radiocarbon and paleomagnetic secular variation (PSV) data in the top 1.5 m of the sediment sequence. Identifiable geochemical populations of cryptotephra are shown to be present in detectable concentrations in sediment from the north flank of the Brooks Range for the first time. Major element glass geochemical correlations are demonstrated between ultra-distal cryptotephra and reference samples from the Late Holocene caldera forming eruption of Opala, Kamchatka, as well as three eruptions in North America: the White River Ash (northern lobe), Ruppert tephra and the Late Holocene caldera forming eruption of Aniakchak. The correlated ages of these cryptotephra support the PSV ages reported in Steen et al. (this volume) and provide evidence for an old-carbon effect in Cascade Lake. Chronological data from the Cascade Lake were then combined using a Bayesian approach to generate an age-depth model that extends back to 21,000 cal yr BP.

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

2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 684-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sturt W. Manning ◽  
Jennifer Birch ◽  
Megan Anne Conger ◽  
Michael W. Dee ◽  
Carol Griggs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Calibration Curve ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
The Other ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Relative Dating ◽  
North American Archaeology ◽  
Calendar Dates ◽  
Age Estimates

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.

scholarly journals The Use of Bayesian Statistics for 14C Dates of Chronologically Ordered Samples: A Critical Analysis

Radiocarbon ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Steier ◽  
Werner Rom
Keyword(s):  
Bayesian Statistics ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Prior Probabilities ◽  
Lower Accuracy

Bayesian mathematics provides a tool for combining radiocarbon dating results on findings from an archaeological context with independent archaeological information such as the chronological order, which may be inferred from stratigraphy. The goal is to arrive at both a more precise and a more accurate date. However, by means of simulated measurements we will show that specific assumptions about prior probabilities—implemented in calibration programs and not evident to the user—may create artifacts. This may result in dates with higher precision but lower accuracy, and which are no longer in agreement with the true ages of the findings.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document