Bayesian Estimation Dating of Lithic Surface Collections (original) (raw)
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Bayesian estimation dating of surface lithic collections
2013
Surface assemblages represent the most accessible, representative sample of the archaeological record for the study of human socio-ecological systems at regional scales. However, the difficulty in developing suitable chronological frameworks from surface assemblages has limited their use. Additionally, surface scatters are composed of artifacts that can accumulate across multiple occupational episodes. A challenge to chronology building in such surface contexts is the necessity to assess the probability of occupation during each time period. We describe a new method of dating surface lithic assemblages using empirical Bayesian methods, with an example from northeastern Spain. We use Bayesian methods to estimate the probability of occupation during 11 temporal periods (ca. 13,000–4,200 cal BP) for a sample of 25 lithic surface assemblages. A Bayesian approach allows us to combine prior knowledge, with different degrees of uncertainty, about the temporal sensitivity of projectile forms statistically derived from a regional calibration data set of 35 dated assemblages to estimate the age of each surface collections probabilistically. This approach provides new insight into the settlement history of the Maestrat in the first half of the Holocene, during the transition from foraging to food production, and offers a powerful tool to archaeologists for the dating of surface collections.
Quaternary International, 2023
This paper presents a refined Mesolithic chronocultural sequence as a result of matching data provided by the set of archaeological research conducted at Cueva de la Cocina (Valencia, Spain) in the 20th and 21st centuries and the new radiocarbon dates record. Because available data are of different quality, we apply a methodological framework based on Bayesian modelling approaches. To do this, we systematically order each one of the archaeological registers and then combine the information in a unitary general chronology. Our novel approach introduces Bayesian modelling from a double analytical procedure: using Bayesian chronological models applied to the stratigraphic sequence of Pericot's excavation in Cocina cave we build a general phase model using data from multiple years of archaeological fieldwork. One the most reliable layers have been defined, we use this information to define the rest of the sequence through a Predictive Bayesian approach. This approach sheds light on evolutionary questions from a macroscale regarding the socioecological dynamics of the last hunter-gatherers and their role for explaining the subsequent agricultural spread.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2022
The purpose of this work is to show an automatic Bayesian procedure to obtain accurate chronological information of archaeological assemblages characterized by palimpsest or without radiocarbon dates and whose temporal information comes only from bifacial flint arrowheads. In this paper, a classification method based on the Dirichlet-multinomial inferential process and its posterior predictive probability distribution is discussed. Its purpose is to predict the chronological period of undated archaeological assemblages (levels or sites) by means of a Bayesian predictive process based on the posterior distribution of each bifacial flint arrowhead types in the Eastern Iberia during the 4th and 3rd millennium cal. BC. The results obtained suggest that this approach is very useful to achieve an accurate chronology when other archaeological information is not available, or it is not conclusive.
Excavations at Can Sadurní Cave since 2012 have uncovered a complex stratigraphy for the Middle Neolithic phase (ca. 4700-4000 cal. BC). This was not in agreement with our expectations from the previous excavation of a trial trench, where only 4 layers (10, 10b, 11 and 11b) were uncovered. After excavating a funerary layer with several in situ burials and further deposits containing multiple layers of burnt dung (fumier), the stratigraphy was revised and 5 episodes within layer 11 were detected. It became necessary to find a tool to refine the chronological sequence of these uses, under the premise that it is unlikely that the cave was used as a funerary area and a byre at the same time. Bayesian modelling allowed distinguishing these two phases, establishing an earlier use of the cave for animal herding purposes (ca. 4700-4450 cal. BC) and a funerary use of the cave in a more recent period (ca. 4400-4200 cal. BC).