Details
A variety of techniques have been developed to provide scientific chronologies of archaeological sites and material culture. These chronologies underpin the narratives that are generated for prehistoric and other periods. The application of Bayesian statistical analysis to scientific chronologies has been hailed as ‘a revolution in understanding’, and has brought renewed emphasis onto how we generate scientific chronological data, how these data are applied into wider narratives, and the epistemological importance of these data. This volume will provide a timely review of the methods, applications and challenges of applying different scientific dating techniques to archaeological sites and material culture. It will then provide an introduction to Bayesian modelling, and highlight a series of considerations in the application of scientific dating techniques.
Table of Contents
Figure List
Table List
Contributors
Abstract
Conventions used
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Radiocarbon
Seren Griffiths and Thomas Higham
Chapter 3 Dendrochronology
Martin Bridge and Seren Griffiths
Chapter 4 Luminescence – Optically Simulated Luminescence and Thermoluminescence
Abi Stone and Seren Griffiths
Chapter 5 Archaeomagnetic dating
Sam Harris and Seren Griffiths
Chapter 6 Palaeoenvironmental chronologies
Seren Griffiths and Benjamin Gearey
Chapter 7 On Site — designing and implementing chronometric sampling strategies
Seren Griffiths
Chapter 8 Analysing Datasets – Bayesian inference and archaeological chronometric data
Seren Griffiths and Richard Staff
Chapter 9 Scientific dating and narrative
Seren Griffiths
