Improvement of the Procedure for Probabilistic Calibration of Radiocarbon Dates

Abstract

A set of computer procedures for probabilistic calibration of ¹⁴C dates was developed at the Gliwice Radiocarbon Laboratory for the IBM PC compatible microcomputer. The program comprises three main options: 1) calibration of a single ¹⁴C date, 2) calibration of a set of arbitrary dates, 3) calibration of a set of related dates. Results of calibration are presented in the form of graphs and numeric data, including tables of selected quantiles and inter-quantile ranges of resulting probability distribution of cal age. In this paper, we present the aims of the program, with a short description of its structure, show examples of working with output data in terms of expected archaeological application, and consider the possibility of standardization of calibration procedures.