Improving the Effectiveness of Archaeomagnetic Dating in the Southwest

Summary

The theoretical foundations for archaeomagnetic dating are strong, and we enjoy more than 50 years of experience and practice in the Americas. Abundant independently dated burned sediments have supported the progressive refinement of secular variation (dating) curves as observed in the Southwest, improving the precision and replicability of date range interpretations. However, the performance of archaeomagnetic dating has not lived up to its potential as a source of reliable dating information, frustrating client archaeologists. This is in part due to the common use of an outdated statistical approach to deriving date ranges from the SWCV1995 dating curve. Despite curve refinements (i.e., SWCV2000), reliance on the old calibration and the statistical approach have often produced nonsensical date results. We address these issues through the use of a graphical approach to confirm the sensibility of dates and date ranges, and the use of alternative dating curves for some time periods. Further efforts to restore the credibility and extend the contributions of archaeomagnetic dating emphasize precision at all points in the process, including improved field sampling and laboratory measurement techniques, increased use of the recently available DuBois archaeomagnetic archive, and the initiation of new approaches to building and evaluating secular variation curves.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22602