Radiocarbon calibration by the date distribution

Paul Muzikar, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN USA

Radiocarbon 41 (1999) 215-220

A method is presented for calibrating radiocarbon ages based on statistical analysis of a large number of randomly distributed dates. One interesting feature of this method is that it is internal; that is, it allows one to extend a known calibration curve further back in time by using only 14C dates, with no reference to any other dating technique. A serious difficulty in implementing this method lies in assembling a sample of dates with the correct statistical properties.