La datation des structures de cuisson : intégration de l’archéomagnétisme et du radiocarbone, apports de l’anthracologie

Abstract

Dating constitutes one of the major issues in archaeology. The recent development of statistical methods for combining chronological information has brought new perspectives to this area. Through use in particular of the Bayesian statistical approach, the results from radiocarbon and archaeomagnetic dating can be combined with artefact typochronology and stratigraphy. The aim is to determine precisely the moment at which a craft firing-structure was fired for the last time. In order to judge the synchronism between the wood’s death, dated by radiocarbon, and the final firing dated by archaeomagnetism, it appears essential to have recourse to supplementary analyses such as anthracology. Four medieval examples (pottery, tile and lime kilns) are used to present the application and potential of this integrated approach.