Age-depth modelling and the effect of including – or not – shared errors across sets of OSL samples: The case study of Beg-er-Vil (Brittany, France)

Abstract

The coastal site of Beg-er-Vil (Brittany, France) has yielded remains of a dwelling site from the Mesolithic period, dating back to ca. 8000 years ago. These archaeological remains were covered by a marine sand dune. Among the research questions raised by recent excavations, the timing of the dune formation with respect to the human occupations is of particular interest: how much time elapsed between these two events? To resolve this question, we employed radiocarbon dating to infer the timing of human occupations and OSL dating to date the dune aggradation. We combined radiocarbon and OSL data in a Bayesian framework, including stratigraphic constraints and measurement errors shared across OSL samples, to build a robust and precise chronological model of the site. We then built an age-depth model for the dune to determine the onset of dune formation. We conclude that we cannot detect a time gap between the latest human occupations and dune aggradation. Finally, we demonstrate how stratigraphic constraints and shared errors affect – and improve – the precision of the chronology inferred from our measurements.