Seeking the Holy Grail: robust chronologies from archaeology and radiocarbon dating combined

Citation

Bánffy E, Bayliss A, Denaire A, Gaydarska B, Hofmann D, Lefranc P, Jakucs J, Marić M, Oross K, Tasić N & Whittle A (2018) Seeking the Holy Grail: robust chronologies from archaeology and radiocarbon dating combined. Documenta Praehistorica, 45, pp. 120-136. https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.45.10

Abstract
The strengths of formal Bayesian chronological modelling are restated, combining as it does knowledge of the archaeology with the radiocarbon dating of carefully chosen samples of known taphonomy in association with diagnostic material culture. The risks of dating bone samples are reviewed, along with a brief history of the development of approaches to the radiocarbon dating of bone. In reply to Strien (2017), selected topics concerned with the emergence and aftermath of the LBK are discussed, as well as the early Vin≠a, Ra∫i∏te and Hinkelstein sequences. The need for rigour in an approach which combines archaeology and radiocarbon dating is underlined.

Keywords
radiocarbon dating; bone samples; laboratory methods; Bayesian chronological mod- elling; earliest LBK; Vinča; Ražište; Hinkelstein;

Journal
Documenta Praehistorica: Volume 45

People

Professor Alexandra Bayliss

Professor, Biological and Environmental Sciences