Bayesian classification for dating archaeological sites via projectile points

Identifier:  RP:4688

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/RP4688

Authors:  Bernabeu, Joan; Pardo-Gordó, Salvador; Jimenez-Puerto, Joaquín; García-Donato, Gonzalo; Armero, Carmen

Abstract:
Dating is a key element for archaeologists. We propose a Bayesian approach to provide chronology to sites that have neither radiocarbon dating nor clear stratigraphy and whose only information comes from lithic arrowheads. This classifier is based on the Dirichlet-multinomial inferential process and posterior predictive distributions. The procedure is applied to predict the period of a set of undated sites located in the east of the Iberian Peninsula during the 4th and 3rd millennium cal BC.