2 Preparation

We will not focus on the physics underlying radiocarbon age measurements, nor on laboratory procedures, beyond some brief references as necessary. There is an abundance of literature on these aspects of radiocarbon in archaeology (e.g., (Taylor and Bar-Yosef 2014; Wood 2015)). Analysis of large assemblages of radiocarbon dates is also a topic unto itself, involving distinct questions, logics, and methods (see, for instance, Bronk Ramsey 2017a; Crema and Bevan 2021; Contreras and Codding 2024). Rather, we will focus here on applying radiocarbon dating in site-scale archaeology.

2.1 Readings

Useful background and vocabulary can be found in Bayliss and Marshall’s (2022) handbook (freely downloadable!). I would suggest reading Ch.1 (p3-15) and reviewing the Glossary (p116-119) before this workshop. For Session 2, please read Ch. 2 (p16-22).

2.2 Software

We will use OxCal, which can be either run online or installed locally. There is no need to install it locally for this workshop, but you will need to register to get access to the online version (here). When prompted to log in, select ‘New User’ and enter your information; you should then receive an email with login information.

OxCal is far from the only tool for calibrating and modeling radiocarbon dates (see, e.g., ChronoModel. OxCal has a few important advantages, however: it is clearly documented (e.g., Bronk Ramsey 2001), widely used in archaeology, and has an active and supportive community. For simple calibration there are even more options; see, e.g., CalPal, as well as various R packages such as BChron and rice.

Useful packages for R users include:

  • Bchron (Parnell 2015)
  • rintcal (Blaauw 2025)
  • rice (Blaauw 2024)
  • rcarbon (Bevan and Crema 2017)
  • c14
  • stratigraphr
  • c14bazAAR (Schmid, Seidensticker, and Hinz 2019)
  • ArchaeoPhases (Philippe, Vibet, and Frerebeau 2024)

2.3 Exercises

The introduction to common questions, methods, and issues is built around examples using simulated data that you will calibrate and model using OxCal. These data are provided below with each exercise.