Radiocarbon Calibration and Analysis of Stratigraphy: The OxCal Program

1995/01/01 by Christopher Bronk Ramsey · 2,423 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Mathematics · Social Sciences · #Archaeology #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Artificial intelligence #Bayesian probability #Calibration #Computer program #Computer science #Computer vision #Geography #Geology #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #IBM #Mathematics #Paleontology #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Programming language #Radiocarbon dating #Sampling (signal processing) #Software #Statistics #Stratigraphy

paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0033822200030903

published in Radiocarbon 37(2), 425-430 (Cambridge University Press)

openalex publication_date 1995/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

People usually study the chronologies of archaeological sites and geological sequences using many different kinds of evidence, taking into account calibrated radiocarbon dates, other dating methods and stratigraphic information. Many individual case studies demonstrate the value of using statistical methods to combine these different types of information. I have developed a computer program, OxCal, running under Windows 3.1 (for IBM PCs), that will perform both 14 C calibration and calculate what extra information can be gained from stratigraphic evidence. The program can perform automatic wiggle matches and calculate probability distributions for samples in sequences and phases. The program is written in C++ and uses Bayesian statistics and Gibbs sampling for the calculations. The program is very easy to use, both for simple calibration and complex site analysis, and will produce graphical output from virtually any printer.

Citations

• Extended 14C Data Base and Revised CALIB 3.0 14C Age Calibration Program
• Modeling Atmospheric 14C Influences and 14C Ages of Marine Samples to 10,000 BC

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Related

• Recent and Planned Developments of the Program OxCal
• Bayesian Analysis of Radiocarbon Dates
• A New Method for High-Resolution Dating of Radiocarbon Data: The Example of the First Three Centuries B.C
• Calibrating Radiocarbon Dates with R
• INFERENCE FROM LARGE SETS OF RADIOCARBON DATES: SOFTWARE AND METHODS