Neolithic population and summed probability distribution of 14C-dates

Abstract

This paper assesses the use of radiocarbon dates as a population proxy during the north European Mesolithic–Neolithic transition. By addressing data from the Jutland peninsula, it is shown that the sum probability distributions are influenced by three human-inflicted biases. Two of these – changed ritual behaviour and changes of subsistence strategies – refer to past human activity, while the third consists of modern research strategies. The analysis questions the validity of sum probability distributions as a population proxy in a period where a society experiences a transformation process.