Estimating radiocarbon calibration curves

Abstract

In addition to being crucial to the establishment of archaeological chronologies,\nradiocarbon dating is vital to the establishment of time lines for many Holocene and late\nPleistocene palaeoclimatic studies and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. The\ncalibration curves necessary to map radiocarbon to calendar ages were originally estimated\nusing only measurements on known age tree-rings. More recently, however, the types of\nrecords available for calibration have diversified and a large group of scientists (known\nas the IntCal Working Group---IWG) with a wide range of backgrounds has come together to\ncreate internationally-agreed estimates of the calibration curves. In 2002, Caitlin Buck\nwas recruited to the IWG and asked to offer advice on statistical methods for curve\nconstruction. In collaboration with Paul Blackwell, she devised a tailor-made Bayesian\ncurve estimation method which was adopted by the IWG for making all of the 2004\ninternationally-agreed radiocarbon calibration curve estimates. This paper reports on that\nwork and on the on-going work that will eventually provide models, methods and software\nfor rolling updates to the curve estimates.

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• University of Sheffield GB

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