Abstract
<p class="Abstract">This paper is about the chronological reasoning used by field archaeologists. It presents a formalized and computerizable but simple way to make more rigorous and explicit the moving from the stratigraphic relative chronology to the quantified “absolute” time, adding to the usual <em>Terminus Post Quem</em> and <em>Terminus Ante Quem </em>notions an extended system of inaccuracy intervals which limits the beginnings, ends and durations of stratigraphic units and relationships. These intervals may be processed as an inequations system, integrating stratigraphic order relationships and available dating sources. Questions about chronological units grouping, about the differences between stratigraphic time and historical time, about the extension of the exposed chronological frame to historic entities, and about the processing of uncertainties, are discussed. Finally, the present state of computerized tools using this way is briefly indicated.</p>
Highlights
Since the concepts rethinking carried out by E.C
This paper, derived from a work in progress about formalisation of stratigraphic data processing and chronological reasoning in field archaeology [6]-[9], presents some elements devoted to this moving from the stratigraphic relative chronology analysed from field observations to a quantified frame of time using different dating sources
After reminding some notions of formalization of stratigraphic relative chronology – which is the basis of the chronological reasoning discussed here – in Section 2, we will expose the proposed framework and process to integrate the observed relative chronology in a quantified time frame, taking in account the variety of available dating (Section 3)
Summary
Since the concepts rethinking carried out by E.C. Harris in the 1970s about archaeological stratigraphy [1], [2], the stratigraphic observations have become more rigorously recorded and processed. It is well known that the possibilities to get “absolute” (more exactly: quantified) indications of time about archaeological remains have been in constant progress for the past sixty years, thanks to the laboratory dating techniques. These advances in relative and “absolute” chronology still leave some dark zones in the basic chronological reasoning used in field archaeology. This paper, derived from a work in progress about formalisation of stratigraphic data processing and chronological reasoning in field archaeology [6]-[9], presents some elements devoted to this moving from the stratigraphic relative chronology analysed from field observations to a quantified frame of time using different dating sources. In the last section, computerized tools derived from this work are briefly presented (Section 7)
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