Summarizing a Set of Radiocarbon Determinations: A Robust Approach

A general (Bayesian) method for summarizing sets of radiocarbon determinations is presented, combining archaeological a priori considerations with the radiocarbon determinations to obtain dates on the calendar scale. The problems of outliers (which are common in radiocarbon dating) and robustness are addressed. Outliers are defined within this context and an extended model to cope with outliers is also presented. Two examples are presented to illustrate the techniques proposed.