--- title: Dating Methods description: Dating methods in archaeology establish the age of artifacts and sites. This topic covers relative and absolute techniques, such as stratigraphy and radiocarbon dating, enabling learners to determine chronological sequences and interpret historical timelines. category: humanities subcategory: archaeology difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/dating-methods --- # Dating Methods Dating methods in archaeology establish the age of artifacts and sites. This topic covers relative and absolute techniques, such as stratigraphy and radiocarbon dating, enabling learners to determine chronological sequences and interpret historical timelines. ## Available Resources 3 Books • 3 Websites ## Books ### 1. Quaternary Dating Methods **Author:** Mike Walker Undergraduate textbook surveying dating across radiometric methods, incremental methods including dendrochronology and varve counting, relative dating, and age-equivalence techniques such as tephrochronology. Gives the physical basis, sample requirements and error sources of each with minimal mathematics. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470869275?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** geochronology, quaternary-science, radiometric-dating, dendrochronology, tephrochronology ### 2. Radiocarbon Dating: An Archaeological Perspective, 2nd Edition **Author:** R. E. Taylor, Ofer Bar-Yosef Standard reference on radiocarbon in archaeology: measurement principles, AMS instrumentation, sample chemistry, and the systematic sources of anomalous dates and how they are resolved, followed by critical assessment of 14C chronologies across Old and New World prehistory. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1598745905?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** radiocarbon-dating, archaeology, ams-dating, archaeological-chronology ### 3. Seriation, Stratigraphy, and Index Fossils **Author:** Michael J. O'Brien, R. Lee Lyman Monograph tracing how early twentieth-century Americanist archaeologists built chronologies from seriation, stratigraphic excavation and index fossils. Explains the logic, assumptions and limits of each relative-dating method, so readers can evaluate how culture-historical sequences were constructed and why they still matter. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/147578192X?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, archeology ## Websites ### 1. OxCal: Radiocarbon Calibration and Bayesian Chronological Analysis **Author:** Christopher Bronk Ramsey The Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit's calibration and Bayesian modelling program, free to run in a browser. Its online manual documents calibration curves, model components, stratigraphic constraints, phases, wiggle-matching and the command language behind published archaeological chronologies. You cannot actually practise Bayesian chronology without this tool, and the official manual is the only complete reference for its model syntax. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/oxcal.html **Tags:** radiocarbon-calibration, bayesian-chronology, oxcal, archaeological-chronology ### 2. Radiocarbon Dating and Chronological Modelling: Guidelines and Best Practice **Author:** Alex Bayliss, Peter Marshall Free Historic England guidance covering radiocarbon principles, measurement, calibration and reservoir effects, then Bayesian chronological modelling end to end. Seven worked case studies walk through sample selection, model building, validation and reporting on real excavations and standing buildings. The single best free document on this topic. It is the operational standard for how radiocarbon programmes are designed, modelled and reported in British archaeology, and the only place a learner gets the full Bayesian workflow (problem definition, simulation-driven sample selection, model validation) rather than an isolated explanation of half-lives. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/radiocarbon-dating-chronological-modelling/ **Tags:** radiocarbon-dating, bayesian-chronological-modelling, calibration, archaeological-science, historic-england ### 3. archaeological.org The Archaeological Institute of America’s website offers archaeology news and feature articles (from Archaeology Magazine), plus teaching resources, fieldwork updates, and professional opportunities such as grants, fellowships, and events. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://archaeological.org **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, anthropology --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. 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