Hierarchical Bayesian modeling for combining dates in archeological context

Abstract

A Bayesian approach is proposed for combining dates from different dating methods used in archeology. This modeling provides an automatic way to penalize outlying data. Examples are provided from different archeological contexts and involving radiocarbon, luminescence and archaeomagnetic results. This new combination procedure is also applied to the wiggle-matching process in dendrochronological dating. Calculations are based on MCMC numerical techniques and can be performed using the cross-platform ChronoModel application which is free, open source software (FOSS).