Dating is an important step in the study of an archaeological site. It establishes when the site was active. Combined with statistics, it provides tools for answering many questions: when was a site active? How long was it occupied? Was it occupied during several different periods? What is the chronology of those periods of occupation?
Several dating methods are available, and the choice depends mainly on the type of material found at the site and the site's age. Each technique provides dates whose precision depends on the method used.
Several objects from an archaeological site may be dated, and a wealth of additional information can be collected. Stratigraphic considerations, for example, impose an ordering constraint on the ages. Bayesian statistics provides a method for estimating the relevant period that takes this information into account, combining it with laboratory dating measurements performed on the collected objects.
Some dating methods
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Dendrochronology is used to date wood. It is based on the thickness of tree rings, which is compared with a reference chronology. It can be applied to dates ranging from the present back to 9000 BCE.
