Radiocarbon chronology of Neolithic and Predynastic sites in Upper Egypt and the Delta

A calibration is presented for conventional radiocarbon ages ranging from 10 to 7240 years BP and thus covering a calendric range of 8000 years from 6050 BC to AD 1950. Distinctive features of this calibration include 1) an improved data set consisting of 1154 radiocarbon measurements on samples of known age, 2) an extended range over which radiocarbon ages may be calibrated (an additional 530 years), 3) separate 95% confidence intervals (in tabular from) for six different radiocarbon uncertainties (20, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300 years), and 4) an estimate of the non-Poisson errors related to radiocarbon determinations, including an estimate of the systematic errors between laboratories.

Techniques for pragmatically interpreting arrays of radiocarbon dates are given. These include weighted averaging, statistical rejection of data, and the evaluation of contemporaneity. Commonly encountered situations are discussed with several actual examples to illustrate these procedures. This paper is Contribution No. 70, Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona.