Calibration of 14C Histograms: A Comparison of Methods

Abstract

The interpretation of 14C histograms is complicated by the non-linearity of the 14C time scale in terms of calendar years, which may result in clustering of 14C ages in certain time intervals unrelated to the (geologic or archaeologic) phenomenon of interest. One can calibrate 14C histograms for such distortions using two basic approaches. The KORHIS method constructs a 14C histogram before calibration is performed by means of a correction factor. We present the CALHIS method based on the Groningen calibration program for individual 14C ages. CALHIS first calibrates single 14C ages and then sums the resulting calibration distributions, thus yielding a calibrated 14C histogram. The individual calibration distributions are normalized to a standard Gaussian distribution before superposition, thus allowing direct comparison among various 14C histograms. Several experiments with test data sets demonstrate that CALHIS produces significantly better results than KORHIS. Although some problems remain (part of the distortions due to 14C variations cannot be eliminated), we show that CALHIS offers good prospects for using 14C histograms, particularly with highly precise and accurate 14C ages.