The Dating Game: The Dialogue between Absolute and Relative Techniques in the British Iron Age

Summary

The traditional approach to the Iron Age (c. 800 cal BC–cal AD 43) has been to construct complex chronologies based on artefact typologies. Historically, radiocarbon dating was eschewed in this period, because it was thought to offer less precision than artefact dating. Such views are becoming increasingly untenable, and recent Iron Age research is showing that typological dating produces sequences that are regularly too late.

This paper will draw upon British Iron Age research from across the last decade to explore how chronologies based in scientific-dating and developed within a Bayesian framework can allow us to explore events and investigate processes. Furthermore, it will argue that by maintaining an open dialogue with the 'traditional' dating techniques, it often is possible to come to a reconciliation and thus new forms of understanding.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Moments in Time: Re-creating History with the Bayesian Approach

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15002