EUBAR: A Database of 14C Measurements for the European Bronze Age. A Bayesian Analysis of 14C-Dated Archaeological Contexts from Northern Italy and Southern France

Abstract

The chronological framework of European protohistory is mostly a relative chronology based on typology and stratigraphic data. Synchronization of different time periods suffers from a lack of absolute dates; therefore, disagreements between different chronological schemes are difficult to reconcile. An alternative approach was applied in this study to build a more precise and accurate absolute chronology. To the best of our knowledge, we have collected all the published 14C dates for the archaeological sites in the region from the Ebro River (Spain) to the Middle Danube Valley (Austria) for the period 1800–750 BC. The available archaeological information associated with the 14C dates was organized in a database that totaled more than 1600 14C dates. In order to build an accurate and precise chronology, quality selection rules have been applied to the 14C dates based on both archaeological context and analytical quality. Using the OxCal software and Bayesian analysis, several 14C time sequences were created following the archaeological data and different possible scenarios were tested in northern Italy and southern France.