Rcarbon: Radiocarbon Date Calibration and Statistical Analysis Functions

rcarbon provides a statistical framework for building demographic and longitudinal inferences from aggregate radiocarbon date lists. The package includes functions for calibration, uncalibration, and plotting, as well as Monte-Carlo simulation and spatial permutation tests. It was authored by Andrew Bevan and is often used for archaeological research.

Use Cases

• Calibrating radiocarbon dates for archaeological chronology based on the core calibration functions
• Building demographic models from aggregated radiocarbon data based on the described statistical framework
• Performing spatial analysis of radiocarbon date distributions using the included spatial permutation tests
• Testing hypotheses about population trends using the Monte-Carlo simulation test referenced in the description

Strengths

• Implements peer-reviewed statistical methods including Monte-Carlo simulation and spatial permutation tests
• Includes functions for both basic calibration and advanced longitudinal inference building

Limitations

• Row count and dataset scale are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified

Provenance

Source

Andrew Bevan

Collection Method

Software package for analysis, likely aggregating or processing user-provided radiocarbon data.

Time Range

Temporal coverage is dependent on user-provided input data.

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified

Geography

Spatial coverage is dependent on user-provided input data.