Strategy for Radiocarbon Chronological Assessment of Ceramic Styles: An Example from Prehispanic Northwestern Argentina

Abstract

This study argues that to properly set the duration of a particular pottery style using radiocarbon it is necessary to have a long series of data, but also to critically evaluate its reliability. This study presents a methodological strategy to establish the temporal position of the Famabalasto Negro Grabado (Famabalasto Black Incised) pottery style, which has a problematic chronological allocation in northwest Argentine archaeology. This article considers as a starting point the different hypotheses referring to the chronology of this ceramic style. All available 14 C dates and the information of the archaeological contexts were used to evaluate the different degrees of certainty in the sample-event association and differentiate the association degrees among the dated events and the set of recovered ceramics. For this, a quadripartite scale of date-pottery association is proposed. This treatment of the information allows to rank the more reliable data. Anomalous data are detected and discussed, and as a result, the period of production of this style at a regional level can be dated to the early 14th century and mid-16th/carly 17th century. This analysis presents a methodology that can be applied to different archaeological situations.