Absolute Chronology Research Articles

The relative and absolute chronology of strato-tectonic events in the Gorom-Gorom granitoid terrane and Oudalan-Gorouol belt, northeast Burkina Faso

The integration of field mapping and analytical studies of magmatic units of the northeast of Burkina Faso has provided new information on the tectonic and magmatic evolution of the Oudalan-Gorouol belt and the Gorom-Gorom granitoid terrane. Structural, geochemical and geochronological analyses have helped to clarify the geological evolution of the region during the Tangaean Event (D1) and Eburnean Orogeny (D2) through to the Wabo Tampelse Event (D3). Further to this, zircon U–Pb geochronology data have demonstrated that the Oudalan-Gorouol belt and the Gorom-Gorom granitoid terrane represents some of the oldest outcropping geology in the Palaeoproterozoic Baoulé-Mossi domain recognised to date, with the oldest age at 2253±9Ma. The geochronology and geology suggests that the basement or a pre-Birimian crust to the Birimian Supergroup may be found in the northeast of Burkina Faso.The Eburnean Orogeny in the northeastern Burkina is preceded by the two phases of deformation (D1−x and D1), and two phases of magmatism. D1−x is associated with the emplacement of the Dori Batholith at the onset of D1 (2164–2141Ma). D1 ductile–brittle deformation formed F1 folds and discrete high-strained mylonite zones that deformed the Oudalan-Gorouol belt and the Gorom-Gorom granitoid terrane during a southwest-directed palaeo-principal transport direction. The pre-Birimian to Birimian supracrustal rocks and intrusions were regionally metamorphosed during D1 to greenschist to amphibolite facies.The Eburnean Orogeny (2130–1980Ma) is characterised by northwest–southeast shortening; it was followed by north–northwest to south–southeast shortening with development of sinistral strike-slip faults and shears. D2 brittle-(ductile) deformation is manifested by refolding of F1 by northeast-trending F2, and development of a pervasive northeast-trending S2 to S2-C foliation. Metamorphic grade attained greenschist facies during D2 with development of the mineral assemblage of quartz-chlorite–muscovite±actinolite.The Wabo Tampelse (D3) deformation event is brittle in character and does not significantly affect regional geological architecture in the study area.

Sedimentary indications and absolute chronology of Holocene relative sea‐level changes retrieved from coastal lagoon deposits on Samsø, Denmark

Coastal lagoons are a typical feature of the landscape in central Denmark. The lagoons formed when basins within the inherited glacial topography were flooded by the mid‐Holocene sea‐level rise. The transgression initiated coastal geomorphological processes and prompted marine sedimentation in the inundated areas. Despite their common occurrence and wide distribution in the area, coastal lagoons and their deposits have rarely been studied as sedimentary archives. The absolute chronology established for the basal marine deposits in sediment cores retrieved from coastal lagoons on the island of Samsø, southern Kattegat Sea, central Denmark, is evidence of a nearly synchronous onset of marine sedimentation at different elevations. This is interpreted as a new indication of a period of very rapid relative sea‐level (RSL) rise between 7.6 and 7.2 ka BP. Following a period of RSL highstand, a marked facies change in the deposits from an inactive lagoon yields consistent ages of around 4.1 ka BP and may be an indication of a marked RSL fall. This study illustrates the potential of coastal lagoons as sedimentary archives for the reconstruction of RSL in SW Scandinavia and in similar coastal environments elsewhere.

Holocene Chronology of the Brattforsheden Delta and Inland Dune Field, Sw Sweden

Brattforsheden is a large glacifluvial deposit in southwestern Sweden and associated with it is one of Sweden’s largest inland dune fields. Although the relative ages of the Brattforsheden depos-its are well known, absolute ages from the area are few. In this study we have used optically stimulat-ed luminescence (OSL), surface exposure (<sup>10</sup>Be) and radiocarbon (<sup>14</sup>C) dating to provide an absolute chronology for the deglaciation and for the Holocene development of the aeolian dunes. Our data show that the deglaciation took place just before 11 ka (11.5 ± 0.6 ka OSL, 11.3 ± 0.8 ka <sup>10</sup>Be), in line with the <sup>14</sup>C-based regional deglaciation age. Aeolian dunes started forming immediately after degla-ciation and were active for at least 2000 years, well after vegetation had established. Renewed aeolian activity occurred 270-180 years ago, resulting in the deposition of sand sheets. Comparison between dating methods and studies of OSL dose distributions show that glacial, glacifluvial and littoral sedi-ments suffer from incomplete bleaching and thus that mean OSL ages from such deposits overesti-mate the true depositional age. By using small aliquots and statistical age models, this effect can part-ly be countered. Also, some of the 10Be ages appear too old, which may be due to previous exposure.

Wetland landscape dynamics, Swifterbant land use systems, and the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in the southern North Sea basin

Over the last decade, excavations in the lower Scheldt river basin (NW Belgium) have identified the first presence of the transitional Mesolithic–Neolithic Swifterbant culture, previously only known from the Netherlands and one site in northwest Germany. These excavations have also yielded the first evidence for the presence of Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik, Limbourg, Blicquy and Epi-Rössen cultural remains in these wetland landscapes. High quality organic preservation at these sites offered the opportunity to reliably place the Swifterbant within the absolute chronology of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in this region, as well as the reconstruction of Swifterbant subsistence practices, most notably the incorporation of cattle husbandry into a traditional hunting-fishing-gathering economy. Two different site types could be identified between the six excavated sites – dune and natural levee sites – which had contemporaneous periods of occupation, but different occupation histories. The integration of the dates from these different site types with the palaeoenvironmental dates provides an initial model of the Swifterbant settlement system in the area and its role in the specific tempo and trajectories of cultural and economic change that occurred during the neolithisation of the Scheldt basin. This model consists of relatively specialized and temporarily inhabited cattle and hunting-fishing camps on the dunes and larger, more continuously occupied levee camps along the river valleys. Bayesian statistical modeling suggests that Swifterbant occupation of the dune sites occurred during a brackish water flooding period and that occupation of the levee sites was more continuous.

The aid of Bayesian radiocarbon modeling in assessing the chronology of Middle Bronze Age Sicily at the site level. A case study

This work explores the issue of the absolute chronology of Sicilian Middle Bronze Age (MBA) at the site level. While the overall absolute chronological framework of the period has been worked out through the years via historical means (namely, presence of datable ceramic imports from Late Helladic Greece), the chronology of individual sites has not been explored. In a Bayesian radiocarbon framework, this work aims at addressing the issue of the start, end, duration, and position within the overall MBA time-frame of a case study settlement (Portella, in north-eastern Sicily). Five models for the site chronology are built and compared, and the broader archaeological and cultural implications are discussed. The analysis indicates that the site is likely to represent an early stage of the development of the overall MBA and, notably, that its end is not likely to have been linked to the historical event that marks the end of MBA elsewhere in the same area. The analysis calls for a need of future site-by-site evaluations of the chronology of MBA at the site level.

Telling Times: Time and Ritual in the Realization of the Early Egyptian State

The increasing use of Bayesian-modelled absolute chronologies has met with calls for more sophisticated accounts of not just our perception of archaeological time, but also of past temporal experience. Using a case study of fourth-millennium bc Egypt this article seeks to address this. It is a period that has long been perceived through a detailed relative framework, a legacy of Flinders Petrie's development of seriation. Yet this legacy imparted more than a framework, for its origins within nineteenth-century cultural evolutionism veiled an explanatory apparatus that encourages linear and gradualist narratives of Predynastic development. By setting a new series of absolute dates within a historically informed critique of relative dating it is possible to question previous assumptions concerning tempos of change. This does not obviate relative typologies, however. Rather it encourages us to ask new questions as to what they might represent. It is argued that in evaluating new absolute measurements of time with reference to ritual activity that distinctive temporalities in the transformation of society can be discerned, ones in which world's first territorial state became a social reality for past communities.

Radiocarbon and the Archaeological Record: An Integrative Approach for Building an Absolute Chronology for the Late Bronze and Iron Ages of Israel

The establishment of an absolute chronology for the Late Bronze and Iron Ages in the southern Levant would make it possible to use changes in material culture in order to study the impact of trade, dissemination of knowledge, and the impact of climate on historical processes. To achieve this, a detailed absolute chronology is needed for individual sites and on a regional scale with a resolution that can differentiate events within a century. To realize this challenging goal, only samples from well-established primary contexts ought to be studied. Such primary contexts (with “dating assemblages”) can be identified by combining macroscopic with microscopic observations. Chronological studies at the sites of Qubur el-Walaydah, Tel es-Safi, and in particular, Megiddo, demonstrate that high-resolution dating can be achieved, with very few outliers in the data sets. The major limitation on applying this approach is the fact that we are currently constrained to dating short-lived samples (charred seeds and olive pits) and collagen from bones. Thus, an immediate goal of radiocarbon research is to develop the ability to date other short-lived materials, such as organic material occluded in siliceous plant phytoliths, wood ash, and possibly organic residues preserved in pottery vessels.

O abordare Bayesiană a datelor AMS aparţinând epocii cuprului din Câmpia Panonică / A Bayesian Approach of the AMS Data from the Great Hungarian Plain’s Copper Age

The relative chronological schemes for the Early and Middle Copper Age in the eastern half of the Carpathian Basin show the following succession: Tiszapolgár culture, followed by the Bodrogkeresztúr culture and finally the Hunyadihalom culture. The AMS dates, recently obtained from Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, are considerably improving the absolute chronology of these three archaeological cultures. Bayesian approaches make it possible to show that the relative chronology is in complete agreement with the analysis of the 14C dates.

Planktic and Benthic14C Reservoir Ages for Three Ocean Basins, Calibrated by a Suite of14C Plateaus in the Glacial-to-Deglacial Suigetsu Atmospheric14C Record

This article presents a compilation of planktic and benthic14C reservoir ages for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and early deglacial from 11 key sites of global ocean circulation in the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Ocean. The ages were obtained by14C plateau tuning, a robust technique to derive both an absolute chronology for marine sediment records and a high-resolution record of changing reservoir/ventilation ages (Δ14C values) for surface and deep waters by comparing the suite of planktic14C plateaus of a sediment record with that of the atmospheric14C record. Results published thus far have used as atmospheric14C reference U/Th-dated corals, the Cariaco planktic record, and speleothems. We have now used the varve-counted atmospheric14C record of Lake Suigetsu terrestrial macrofossils to recalibrate the boundary ages and reservoir ages of the seven published records directly to an atmospheric14C record. In addition, the results for four new cores and further planktic results for four published records are given. Main conclusions from the new compilation are the following: (1) The Suigetsu atmospheric14C record on its varve-counted timescale reflects all14C plateaus, their internal structures, and relative length previously identified, but implies a rise in the average14C plateau age by 200–70014C yr during the LGM and early deglacial times. (2) Based on different14C ages of coeval atmospheric and planktic14C plateaus, marine surface water Δ14C may have temporarily dropped to an equivalent of ∼0 yr in low-latitude lagoon waters, but reached >250014C yr both in stratified subpolar waters and in upwelled waters such as in the South China Sea. These values differ significantly from a widely assumed constant global planktic Δ14C value of 400 yr. (3) Suites of deglacial planktic Δ14C values are closely reproducible in14C records measured at neighboring core sites. (4) Apparent deep-water14C ventilation ages (equivalents of benthic Δ14C), deduced from the sum of planktic Δ14C and coeval benthic-planktic14C differences, vary from 500 up to >5000 yr in LGM and deglacial ocean basins.

Radiocarbon Dating of Aghios Antonios, Potos, and Intersite Chronological Variability in South Thasos, Greece

Radiocarbon dates obtained for the coastal hilltop settlement of Aghios Antonios Potos in south Thasos are statistically treated to define the absolute chronology for the start and the end of the various habitation and cultural phases at the site. The location was first occupied during the Final Neolithic (FN) between 3800 and 3600 BC, extending this much contested phase to the lowest up to now record for Thasos and the northern Greece. The site is continuously inhabited from Early Bronze Age I until the early Late Bronze Age (LBA; 1363 BC) when it was abandoned. Comparison with other sites in Thasos and particularly with the inland site of Kastri Theologos showed that the first occupation at Aghios Antonios came soon after the abandonment of Kastri in the beginning of the 4th millennium. In fact, after the decline and abandonment of Aghios Antonios in the LBA, the site of Kastri was reinhabited, leading to the hypothesis that part of the coastal population moved inland. The presumed chronological sequence of alternate habitation between the two settlements may evoke explanations for sociocultural and/or environmental dynamics behind population movements in prehistoric Thasos. A major conclusion of the project is that the 4th millennium occupation gap attested in many sites of Greece, especially in the north, is probably bridged in south Thasos, when the data from all sites are taken together. The mobility of people in Final Neolithic south Thasos may explain the general phenomenon of limited occupational sequences in the FN of north Greece.

Radiocarbon Dating Shows an Early Appearance of Philistine Material Culture in Tell es-Safi/Gath, Philistia

The Late Bronze Age to Iron Age transition in the coastal southern Levant involves a major cultural change, which is characterized, among other things, by the appearance of Philistine pottery locally produced in styles derived from outside the Levant. This transition in the coastal southern Levant is conventionally dated to the 12th century BC, based on historical and archaeological artifacts associated with the Philistine pottery. Radiocarbon dating can provide a more precise independent absolute chronology for this transition, but dating for the period under discussion is complicated by the wiggles and relatively flat slope in the calibration curve, which significantly reduce precision. An additional complication is that the stratigraphic record below and above the transition at this site, as well as at most other sites in the region, is far from complete. We thus used a variety of microarchaeological techniques to improve our understanding of the stratigraphy, and to ensure that the locations with datable short-lived materials were only derived from primary contexts, which could be related directly to the associated material culture. The 14C dates were modeled using Bayesian statistics that incorporate the stratigraphic information. Using this integrative approach, we date the appearance of the Philistine pottery in Tell es-Safi/Gath in the 13th century BC.

Reassessment of Absolute Chronology of the Egyptian New Kingdom and its ´Brotherly´ Countries

Reassessment of Absolute Chronology of the Egyptian New Kingdom and its ´Brotherly´ Countries

Radiocarbon Dating Khirbet Qeiyafa and the Iron I–IIA Phases in the Shephelah: Methodological Comments and a Bayesian Model

This article discusses methodological issues related to the radiocarbon dating of Khirbet Qeiyafa, mainly the question of whether the site should be dated solely according to samples retrieved there or dated as part of a regional sequence of stratigraphically based ceramic typology phases. For the latter, we deploy the large number of14C determinations now available for several sites in the Shephelah, which are located in close proximity to each other, in order to establish a Bayesian model for the absolute chronology of the Iron I–IIA phases in the region. We argue that the information assembled from six neighboring sites in the Shephelah pushes forward the date of Qeiyafa to the 10th century, a date later than the one the excavators estimated based on the more limited14C information from the site alone.

El subsuelo de la Torre del Pretorio: <em>substructiones</em> de tradición helenística bajo la sede del <em>Concilium Prouinciae Hispaniae Citerioris (Tarraco)</em>

This paper presents the study of a complex architectonical area within the so-called provincial forum of Tarraco . The analysis of the architectonical stratigraphy and of the construction processes has been a fundamental tool to understand an area characterized by a complicated urban evolution, showing the development of the building project of such a vast construction as it is the provincial forum. Unfortunately, the absence of data provided by archaeological excavations limits the definition of a precise absolute chronology. The process of transforming the top of Tarraco’s hill into a monumental area started, according to historical and numismatic sources, during the Julio-Claudian era was completed in the Flavian one by ending this monumental complex distributed in three platforms. The area here analysed, placed close to the circus, belongs to a system of substructiones which commonly features those forum and sacred complexes organized in platforms at different levels.

Instant luminescence chronologies? High resolution luminescence profiles using a portable luminescence reader

Establishing a robust chronology is fundamental to most palaeoenvironmental studies. However, the number and positioning of dated points is critical. Using a portable luminescence reader, it is possible to rapidly generate high resolution down core relative age profiles. Profiles of portable luminescence data from two coastal dunes were evaluated and compared with the results of particle size analysis, stratigraphy, and an independent historical chronology. Results show that, even in young samples, portable luminescence data is dominated by an age related signal which in homogeneous sediment need not be corrected for moisture, feldspar content changes or grain size. Profiles therefore provide relative chronologies from which accumulation phases can be established, and from which better targeted sampling and comparison to other sites could be undertaken. Even though they do not provide instant absolute chronologies, field-based portable luminescence profiling of Late Quaternary sites hold much potential to improve the resultant chronologies.

A Reevaluation of the Absolute Chronology of Cabuza and Related Ceramic Styles of the Azapa Valley, Northern Chile

The nature and extent of the political and cultural influence of the Tiwanaku state (ca. A.D. 500—1100) in the Azapa Valley of northern Chile are debated topics. The absolute chronology of these contacts also remains somewhat unclear. Much of the debate has centered on the origins and chronological position of the Tiwanaku-related black-on-red ceramic style called Cabuza. In order to reevaluate the chronological position of the Cabuza, Maytas-Chiribaya, and San Miguel ceramic styles and associated cultural phases of the Azapa Valley, we obtained a total of 16 new radiocarbon dates for the Azapa-6, Azapa- 71a, Azapa-141, and Azapa-143 cemeteries. All but one sample dated to the Late Intermediate period (ca.A.D. 1000-1450). We compare our results with previously published radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dates and carry out Bayesian probability calculations, establishing the most likely chronological ranges for the three ceramic styles. Based on this research, we argue that the undeniable Tiwanaku influence seen in the Azapa Valley more likely reflects processes set in motion by the collapse of the Tiwanaku state rather than an attempt to colonize or indirectly control the Azapa Valley during the Middle Horizon (ca. A.D. 550-1000).

La obsidiana en el paisaje tardío del Valle de Hualfín (departamento de Belén, provincia de Salta)

In this paper we address the comparative analysis of obsidian found at different sites of Hualfin valley (Department of Belen, Catamarca) highlighting its relevance in the network of relationships among spaces, people and objects that shaped the regional Late landscape. Obsidian artifacts have been found in fortifiedsites, onlow hills and spurs, at the bottom of the hills and on the ravines of rivers occupations. The analysis allows us to pro-pose intensive consumption of obsidian from Antofagasta de la Sierra (Catamarca) and its preferential use for the manufacture of projectile points. Given the presence of obsidian in the different contextsstudied, its wide spatial distribution, and the general similarities in their treatment and use, it can be argued that its consumption transcen-ded the limits of complexity and organization of each particular site to become a general resource in the valley, which materializes relationships and shared knowledge. Moreover, the provenience of obsidian and the existence of other evidence -as Belen pottery-, reflecting the movement of goods and people between the valley and the highlands (Puna), ledus to analyze the absolute chronology of the two regions and wonder about the chronological limits of the “Late Period” in the valley and the question of the “origin” of “Belen”.

RHX Dating of Archeological Ceramics Via a New Method to Determine Effective Lifetime Temperature

Determining the absolute chronology of ceramic artifacts has significant implications for archeological and historical research. Wilson, Hall et al. recently suggested a new technique for direct absolute dating of archeological ceramics based on a moisture‐induced chemical reaction, called rehydroxylation (RHX) dating. RHX dating proceeds by measuring the mass of chemically combined water in the ceramics in the form of OH hydroxyls, and the mass gain rate at the Effective Lifetime Temperature (ELT) that the ceramics experienced over its lifetime. To date, ELT determinations have been based on estimates of the ceramic's lifetime temperature history; taking into account weather and climate data and the depth at which the artifact was found. The uncertainty in determining the ELT can be a major component of the overall dating uncertainty. Here, we propose an alternative method which relies minimally on weather and climate data, and provides more precise determinations of the ELT and the ceramic age. The proposed method (SAS: Same Age Samples) involves a minimum of four measurements of the RHX mass gain rate constant for two ceramic samples of the same age at two temperatures. We show via simulations that the proposed SAS method can determine the ELT with a precision of 0.2 K which is comparable to the best ELT determination based on lifetime temperature history, and also comparable to available microbalance temperature resolutions of around 0.1 K. The corresponding percent age error is then 1.4%, or 43 yr for a 3000‐yr‐old ceramic. The proposed SAS method should be tested with ceramic samples of different ages, whose ELT are well‐known.

SAR-OSL dating of Late Pleistocene loess in Southern Romania using fine and coarse-quartz

Loess deposits cover significant areas in Europe, extending from NW-France and Belgium through to central Europe, the Ukraine and Western Russia. The loess palaeosol sequences of the Carpathian Basin-Lower Danube region (Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria) are thought to represent the most continuous and high resolution archives of regional climate and environmental change during the Late and Middle Pleistocene in SE Europe and a link between similar deposits in central Europe and Eurasia. However, in comparison to other loess sequences elsewhere in Western, Central and Eastern Europe, the deposits in Romania have been much less extensively studied. Luminescence dating is, at present, the only method that allows establishing an absolute chronology for loess deposits by virtue of its ability to directly date the moment of sediment deposition. Moreover, the aeolian nature of loess ensures that the luminescence signal is completely reset prior to deposition, a prime requisite for luminescence dating. Thus, loess sediments are ideal materials for developing, testing and applying luminescence techniques. This approach is essential for securely linking loess records from Romania in a chronologically reliable regional framework and to extend this information to other sites from central and eastern European loess belt, in order to understand past paleoenvironmental dynamics at both regional and continental scales.

Satsurblia: new insights of human response and survival across the Last Glacial Maximum in the southern Caucasus.

The region of western Georgia (Imereti) has been a major geographic corridor for human migrations during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic (MP/UP). Knowledge of the MP and UP in this region, however, stems mostly from a small number of recent excavations at the sites of Ortvale Klde, Dzudzuana, Bondi, and Kotias Klde. These provide an absolute chronology for the Late MP and MP–UP transition, but only a partial perspective on the nature and timing of UP occupations, and limited data on how human groups in this region responded to the harsh climatic oscillations between 37,000–11,500 years before present. Here we report new UP archaeological sequences from fieldwork in Satsurblia cavein the same region. A series of living surfaces with combustion features, faunal remains, stone and bone tools, and ornaments provide new information about human occupations in this region (a) prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) at 25.5–24.4 ka cal. BP and (b) after the LGM at 17.9–16.2 ka cal. BP. The latter provides new evidence in the southern Caucasus for human occupation immediately after the LGM. The results of the campaigns in Satsurblia and Dzudzuana suggest that at present the most plausible scenario is one of a hiatus in the occupation of this region during the LGM (between 24.4–17.9 ka cal. BP). Analysis of the living surfaces at Satsurblia offers information about human activities such as the production and utilisation of lithics and bone tools, butchering, cooking and consumption of meat and wild cereals, the utilisation of fibers, and the use of certain woods. Microfaunal and palynological analyses point to fluctuations in the climate with consequent shifts in vegetation and the faunal spectrum not only before and after the LGM, but also during the two millennia following the end of the LGM.