Chronometric Dating

Abstract

This chapter discusses the interpretation of methods that help archaeologists date events on interval scales, with particular emphasis on dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating. It begins with the identification of the events we are dating and the differences between these dated events and the “target” events in which we are actually interested. It uses Dean’s terms for clarifying the relationships between various kinds of events and how the differences between them affect our understanding of chronologies. The chapter reviews the interpretation of dendrochronological dates in the American southwest, with a case study from Pot Creek Pueblo, but especially emphasizes the sources of error in radiocarbon dates and how to deal with them. It reviews factors in the selection of samples for radiocarbon dating, interpretation of the dates in a Bayesian framework, and the use of summed probability distributions (SPD) as proxies for changes in demography.