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 14C 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.