Kevan Edinborough
Biographic Data
| ID | 74182 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kevan Edinborough |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kevan |
| FAMILY NAME | Edinborough |
| SIGNATURE | EDINBOROUGH K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7668-0749 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 473 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Divergent population dynamics in the middle to late Holocene lower Fraser valley and mid-Fraser canyon, British Columbia
How Waun Mawn stone circle was designed and built, and when the Bluestones arrived at Stonehenge
In response to Timothy Darvill's article, ‘Mythical rings?’ (this issue), which argues for an alternative interpretation of Waun Mawn circle and its relationship with Stonehenge, Parker Pearson and colleagues report new evidence from the Welsh site and elaborate on aspects of their original argument. The discovery of a hearth at the centre of the circle, as well as further features around its circumference, reinforces the authors’ original interp…
A Neolithic population model based on new radiocarbon dates from mining, funerary and population scaled activity in the Saint-Gond Marshes region of North East France
Tooth cementum annulation
Additional U/Th dates for the Lapita settlement of Vava'u, Kingdom of Tonga
We present three unreported U/Th dates on coral abraders recovered from Lapita occupations at the ‘Otea and Vuna sites, in Vava'u, Kingdom of Tonga. Integrated with existing radiocarbon and U/Th dates for Vava'u, we also provide a single‐phase Bayesian model for Lapita chronology in these islands
The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales
Bayesian 14C-rationality, Heisenberg Uncertainty, and Fourier Transform
Following some 30 years of radiocarbon research during which the mathematical principles of 14C-calibration have been on loan to Bayesian statistics, here they are returned to quantum physics. The return is based on recognition that 14C-calibration can be described as a Fourier transform. Following its introduction as such, there is need to reconceptualize the probabilistic 14C-analysis. The main change will be to replace the traditional (one-dim…
New Radiocarbon Dates Show Early Neolithic Date of Flint-Mining and Stone Quarrying in Britain
New radiocarbon ( 14 C) dates suggest a simultaneous appearance of two technologically and geographically distinct axe production practices in Neolithic Britain; igneous open-air quarries in Great Langdale, Cumbria, and from flint mines in southern England at ~4000–3700 cal BC. In light of the recent evidence that farming was introduced at this time by large-scale immigration from northwest Europe, and that expansion within Britain was extremely …
Cycles in Stone Mining and Copper Circulation in Europe 5500–2000 bc
The authors of this article consider the relationship in European prehistory between the procurement of high-quality stones (for axeheads, daggers, and other tools) on the one hand, and the early mining, crafting, and deposition of copper on the other. The data consist of radiocarbon dates for the exploitation of stone quarries, flint mines, and copper mines, and of information regarding the frequency through time of jade axeheads and copper arte…
British Neolithic Axehead Distributions and Their Implications
Neolithic stone axeheads from Britain provide an unusually rich, well-provenanced set of evidence with which to consider patterns of prehistoric production and exchange. It is no surprise then that these objects have often been subject to spatial analysis in terms of the relationship between particular stone source areas and the distribution of axeheads made from those stones. At stake in such analysis are important interpretative issues to do wi…
Supply and demand in prehistory? Economics of Neolithic mining in northwest Europe
Assessing continuity in the ancestral territory of the Tsleil-Waututh-Coast Salish, southwest British Columbia, Canada
Estimating Marine Reservoir Effects in Archaeological Chronologies
The best method for quantifying the marine reservoir effect (MRE) using the global IntCal Marine13 calibration curve remains unresolved. Archaeologists frequently quantify uncertainty on MRE values as errors computed from single pairs of marine-terrestrial radiocarbon ages, which we argue significantly overstates their accuracy and precision. Here, we review the assumptions, methods, and applications of estimating MRE via an estimate of the addit…
Radiocarbon test for demographic events in written and oral history
Significance Indigenous oral traditions remain a very controversial source of historical knowledge in Western scientific, humanistic, and legal traditions. Likewise, demographic models using radiocarbon-based simulation methods are controversial. We rigorously test the historicity of indigenous Tsimshian oral records ( adawx ) using an extended simulation-based method. Our methodology is able to detect short-duration (1–2 centuries) demographic e…
Urbanism in Northern Tsimshian archaeology
We consider the provocative idea of whether urbanism as a condition or process is visible in Northern Tsimshian archaeology. We define the condition of urbanism through four traits, each of which we associate with measurable variables. We explore changes in these across the study area in 100-year time bins over 6000 years. We also consider urbanism as a process that includes five kinds of relations. We consider these through six chronological sta…
Supply and Demand in Prehistory? Economics of Neolithic Mining in NW Europe (Neomine)
Beyond culture history
A Marine Reservoir Effect ∆R Value for Kitandach, in Prince Rupert Harbour, British Columbia, Canada
Prince Rupert Harbour (PRH), on the north Pacific Coast of British Columbia, contains at least 157 shell middens, of which 66 are known villages, in an area of approximately 180 km 2 . These sites span the last 9500 yr and in some cases are immense, exceeding 20,000 m 2 surface area and several meters in depth. Recent archaeological research in PRH has become increasingly reliant on radiocarbon dates from marine shell for developing chronologies.…
Cranial Age Assessment and Cranial Pathology from the Mesolithic-Neolithic Inhabitants of the Danube Gorges, Serbia
The data-set described here comprises cranial pathology data and cranial age assessment for 113 individuals from four Mesolithic-Neolithic sites in the Danube Gorges, Serbia. Calibrated radiocarbon dates by archaeological site were included where available. The data were collected after anthropological analysis of this collection. This dataset is available from UCL Discovery in .csv format. The reuse potential of these data is great for paleoepid…
A radiocarbon chronology of European flint mines suggests a link to population patterns
Quantum theory of radiocarbon calibration
The calibration of radiocarbon measurements is based on a number of mathematical assumptions that are rarely considered by users of the various available calibration programs. As 14C ages take on mathematical properties best known from quantum physics, a quantum theoretical approach provides a useful basis to evaluate the reliability of processes of calibration and Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon datasets. We undertake such an evaluation here t…
Craig Rhos-y-felin
Is Neolithic land use correlated with demography? An evaluation of pollen-derived land cover and radiocarbon-inferred demographic change from Central Europe
The transformation of natural landscapes in Middle Europe began in the Neolithic as a result of the introduction of food-producing economies. This paper examines the relation between land-cover and demographic change in a regionally restricted case study. The study area is the Western Lake Constance area which has very detailed palynological as well as archaeological records. We compare land-cover change derived from nine pollen records using a p…
Reconstructing regional population fluctuations in the European Neolithic using radiocarbon dates
In a previous study we presented a new method that used summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates as a proxy for population levels, and Monte-Carlo simulation to test the significance of the observed fluctuations in the context of uncertainty in the calibration curve and archaeological sampling. The method allowed us to identify periods of significant short-term population change, caveated with the fact that around 5% of these p…
An Approximate Bayesian Computation approach for inferring patterns of cultural evolutionary change
A wide range of theories and methods inspired from evolutionary biology have recently been used to investigate temporal changes in the frequency of archaeological material. Here we follow this research agenda and present a novel approach based on Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC), which enables the evaluation of multiple competing evolutionary models formulated as computer simulations. This approach offers the opportunity to: 1) flexibly int…
Reconstructing regional population fluctuations in the European Neolithic using radiocarbon dates
In a previous study we presented a new method that used summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates as a proxy for population levels, and Monte-Carlo simulation to test the significance of the observed fluctuations in the context of uncertainty in the calibration curve and archaeological sampling. The method allowed us to identify periods of significant short-term population change, caveated with the fact that around 5% of these p…
Prehistoric population history
Radiocarbon evidence indicates that migrants introduced farming to Britain
Quantum theory of radiocarbon calibration
The calibration of radiocarbon measurements is based on a number of mathematical assumptions that are rarely considered by users of the various available calibration programs. As 14C ages take on mathematical properties best known from quantum physics, a quantum theoretical approach provides a useful basis to evaluate the reliability of processes of calibration and Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon datasets. We undertake such an evaluation here t…
The impact of the Neolithic agricultural transition in Britain
Bayesian radiocarbon models for the cultural transition during the Allerød in southern Scandinavia
Is Neolithic land use correlated with demography? An evaluation of pollen-derived land cover and radiocarbon-inferred demographic change from Central Europe
The transformation of natural landscapes in Middle Europe began in the Neolithic as a result of the introduction of food-producing economies. This paper examines the relation between land-cover and demographic change in a regionally restricted case study. The study area is the Western Lake Constance area which has very detailed palynological as well as archaeological records. We compare land-cover change derived from nine pollen records using a p…
An Approximate Bayesian Computation approach for inferring patterns of cultural evolutionary change
A wide range of theories and methods inspired from evolutionary biology have recently been used to investigate temporal changes in the frequency of archaeological material. Here we follow this research agenda and present a novel approach based on Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC), which enables the evaluation of multiple competing evolutionary models formulated as computer simulations. This approach offers the opportunity to: 1) flexibly int…
A comment on Steele’s (2010) “radiocarbon dates as data
New Radiocarbon Dates Show Early Neolithic Date of Flint-Mining and Stone Quarrying in Britain
New radiocarbon ( 14 C) dates suggest a simultaneous appearance of two technologically and geographically distinct axe production practices in Neolithic Britain; igneous open-air quarries in Great Langdale, Cumbria, and from flint mines in southern England at ~4000–3700 cal BC. In light of the recent evidence that farming was introduced at this time by large-scale immigration from northwest Europe, and that expansion within Britain was extremely …
Craig Rhos-y-felin
British Neolithic Axehead Distributions and Their Implications
Neolithic stone axeheads from Britain provide an unusually rich, well-provenanced set of evidence with which to consider patterns of prehistoric production and exchange. It is no surprise then that these objects have often been subject to spatial analysis in terms of the relationship between particular stone source areas and the distribution of axeheads made from those stones. At stake in such analysis are important interpretative issues to do wi…
A Marine Reservoir Effect ∆R Value for Kitandach, in Prince Rupert Harbour, British Columbia, Canada
Prince Rupert Harbour (PRH), on the north Pacific Coast of British Columbia, contains at least 157 shell middens, of which 66 are known villages, in an area of approximately 180 km 2 . These sites span the last 9500 yr and in some cases are immense, exceeding 20,000 m 2 surface area and several meters in depth. Recent archaeological research in PRH has become increasingly reliant on radiocarbon dates from marine shell for developing chronologies.…
Discontinuity in the Fijian Archaeological Record Supported by a Bayesian Radiocarbon Model
The Fijian archaeological record is segmented into a series of phases based on distinctive transformations in ceramic forms. Interpretations of the mid-sequence (∼1500–1300 cal BP) transition between the Fijian Plainware phase and the Navatu phase are contentious, with alternative explanations of population replacement versus internal processes of culture change. We present and analyze a series of Fijian Plainware and Navatu phase AMS radiocarbon…
Cycles in Stone Mining and Copper Circulation in Europe 5500–2000 bc
The authors of this article consider the relationship in European prehistory between the procurement of high-quality stones (for axeheads, daggers, and other tools) on the one hand, and the early mining, crafting, and deposition of copper on the other. The data consist of radiocarbon dates for the exploitation of stone quarries, flint mines, and copper mines, and of information regarding the frequency through time of jade axeheads and copper arte…
Supply and demand in prehistory? Economics of Neolithic mining in northwest Europe
Estimating Marine Reservoir Effects in Archaeological Chronologies
The best method for quantifying the marine reservoir effect (MRE) using the global IntCal Marine13 calibration curve remains unresolved. Archaeologists frequently quantify uncertainty on MRE values as errors computed from single pairs of marine-terrestrial radiocarbon ages, which we argue significantly overstates their accuracy and precision. Here, we review the assumptions, methods, and applications of estimating MRE via an estimate of the addit…
The chronology of culture
Archaeologists have long sought appropriate ways to describe the duration and floruit of archaeological cultures in statistical terms. Thus far, chronological reasoning has been largely reliant on typological sequences. Using summed probability distributions, the authors here compare radiocarbon dates for a series of European Neolithic cultures with their generally accepted ‘standard’ date ranges and with the greater precision afforded by dendroc…
The catastrophic final flooding of Doggerland by the Storegga Slide tsunami
Around 8200 calBP, large parts of the now submerged North Sea continental shelf ('Doggerland') were catastrophically flooded by the Storegga Slide tsunami, one of the largest tsunamis known for the Holocene, which was generated on the Norwegian coastal margin by a submarine landslide. In the present paper, we derive a precise calendric date for the Storegga Slide tsunami, use this date for reconstruction of contemporary coastlines in the North Se…
Divergent population dynamics in the middle to late Holocene lower Fraser valley and mid-Fraser canyon, British Columbia
How Waun Mawn stone circle was designed and built, and when the Bluestones arrived at Stonehenge
In response to Timothy Darvill's article, ‘Mythical rings?’ (this issue), which argues for an alternative interpretation of Waun Mawn circle and its relationship with Stonehenge, Parker Pearson and colleagues report new evidence from the Welsh site and elaborate on aspects of their original argument. The discovery of a hearth at the centre of the circle, as well as further features around its circumference, reinforces the authors’ original interp…
The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales
Bayesian 14C-rationality, Heisenberg Uncertainty, and Fourier Transform
Following some 30 years of radiocarbon research during which the mathematical principles of 14C-calibration have been on loan to Bayesian statistics, here they are returned to quantum physics. The return is based on recognition that 14C-calibration can be described as a Fourier transform. Following its introduction as such, there is need to reconceptualize the probabilistic 14C-analysis. The main change will be to replace the traditional (one-dim…
Evolution of Bow-Arrow Projectile Technology
Weapons of Maths Instruction
This paper presents some results from my doctoral research into the evolution of bow-arrow technology using archaeological data from the south Scandinavian Mesolithic (Edinborough 2004). A quantitative approach is used to describe the morphological variation found in samples taken from over 3600 armatures from nine Danish and Swedish lithic assemblages. A linked series of statistical techniques determines the two most significant metric variables…
Prehistoric population history
Conference Participants
From the 19th International Radiocarbon Conference held in Keble College, Oxford, England, April 3-7, 2006
Paleoindian demography and the extraterrestrial impact hypothesis
Recently it has been suggested that one or more large extraterrestrial (ET) objects struck northern North America 12,900 ± 100 calendar years before present (calBP) [Firestone RB, et al. (2007) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104: 16016–16021]. This impact is claimed to have triggered the Younger Dryas major cooling event and resulted in the extinction of the North American megafauna. The impact is also claimed to have caused major cultural changes and po…
The catastrophic final flooding of Doggerland by the Storegga Slide tsunami
Around 8200 calBP, large parts of the now submerged North Sea continental shelf ('Doggerland') were catastrophically flooded by the Storegga Slide tsunami, one of the largest tsunamis known for the Holocene, which was generated on the Norwegian coastal margin by a submarine landslide. In the present paper, we derive a precise calendric date for the Storegga Slide tsunami, use this date for reconstruction of contemporary coastlines in the North Se…
The Delta Survey
This fieldwork report presents the results of the ground survey phase of fieldwork of the Minufiyeh Archaeological Survey during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. These seasons also saw the continuation of investigations into the cemetery and Sacred Falcon Necropolis at the Quesna archaeological area and into the archaeological remains at Kom el-Ahmar, Minuf. The 2008 season saw the first visit of the ground survey to the region between el-Khatatbah and…
Radiocarbon evidence indicates that migrants introduced farming to Britain
Concepts of probability in radiocarbon analysis
In this paper we explore the meaning of the word probability, not in general terms, but restricted to the field of radiocarbon dating, where it has the meaning of ‘dating probability assigned to calibrated 14C-ages’. The intention of our study is to improve our understanding of certain properties of radiocarbon dates, which – although mathematically abstract – are fundamental both for the construction of age models in prehistoric archaeology, as …
A comment on Steele’s (2010) “radiocarbon dates as data
Bayesian radiocarbon models for the cultural transition during the Allerød in southern Scandinavia
The impact of the Neolithic agricultural transition in Britain
Regional population collapse followed initial agriculture booms in mid-Holocene Europe
Following its initial arrival in SE Europe 8,500 years ago agriculture spread throughout the continent, changing food production and consumption patterns and increasing population densities. Here we show that, in contrast to the steady population growth usually assumed, the introduction of agriculture into Europe was followed by a boom-and-bust pattern in the density of regional populations. We demonstrate that summed calibrated radiocarbon date …
Is Neolithic land use correlated with demography? An evaluation of pollen-derived land cover and radiocarbon-inferred demographic change from Central Europe
The transformation of natural landscapes in Middle Europe began in the Neolithic as a result of the introduction of food-producing economies. This paper examines the relation between land-cover and demographic change in a regionally restricted case study. The study area is the Western Lake Constance area which has very detailed palynological as well as archaeological records. We compare land-cover change derived from nine pollen records using a p…
Reconstructing regional population fluctuations in the European Neolithic using radiocarbon dates
In a previous study we presented a new method that used summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates as a proxy for population levels, and Monte-Carlo simulation to test the significance of the observed fluctuations in the context of uncertainty in the calibration curve and archaeological sampling. The method allowed us to identify periods of significant short-term population change, caveated with the fact that around 5% of these p…
An Approximate Bayesian Computation approach for inferring patterns of cultural evolutionary change
A wide range of theories and methods inspired from evolutionary biology have recently been used to investigate temporal changes in the frequency of archaeological material. Here we follow this research agenda and present a novel approach based on Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC), which enables the evaluation of multiple competing evolutionary models formulated as computer simulations. This approach offers the opportunity to: 1) flexibly int…
Discontinuity in the Fijian Archaeological Record Supported by a Bayesian Radiocarbon Model
The Fijian archaeological record is segmented into a series of phases based on distinctive transformations in ceramic forms. Interpretations of the mid-sequence (∼1500–1300 cal BP) transition between the Fijian Plainware phase and the Navatu phase are contentious, with alternative explanations of population replacement versus internal processes of culture change. We present and analyze a series of Fijian Plainware and Navatu phase AMS radiocarbon…
The chronology of culture
Archaeologists have long sought appropriate ways to describe the duration and floruit of archaeological cultures in statistical terms. Thus far, chronological reasoning has been largely reliant on typological sequences. Using summed probability distributions, the authors here compare radiocarbon dates for a series of European Neolithic cultures with their generally accepted ‘standard’ date ranges and with the greater precision afforded by dendroc…
Cranial Age Assessment and Cranial Pathology from the Mesolithic-Neolithic Inhabitants of the Danube Gorges, Serbia
The data-set described here comprises cranial pathology data and cranial age assessment for 113 individuals from four Mesolithic-Neolithic sites in the Danube Gorges, Serbia. Calibrated radiocarbon dates by archaeological site were included where available. The data were collected after anthropological analysis of this collection. This dataset is available from UCL Discovery in .csv format. The reuse potential of these data is great for paleoepid…
A radiocarbon chronology of European flint mines suggests a link to population patterns
Quantum theory of radiocarbon calibration
The calibration of radiocarbon measurements is based on a number of mathematical assumptions that are rarely considered by users of the various available calibration programs. As 14C ages take on mathematical properties best known from quantum physics, a quantum theoretical approach provides a useful basis to evaluate the reliability of processes of calibration and Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon datasets. We undertake such an evaluation here t…
Craig Rhos-y-felin
Beyond culture history
A Marine Reservoir Effect ∆R Value for Kitandach, in Prince Rupert Harbour, British Columbia, Canada
Prince Rupert Harbour (PRH), on the north Pacific Coast of British Columbia, contains at least 157 shell middens, of which 66 are known villages, in an area of approximately 180 km 2 . These sites span the last 9500 yr and in some cases are immense, exceeding 20,000 m 2 surface area and several meters in depth. Recent archaeological research in PRH has become increasingly reliant on radiocarbon dates from marine shell for developing chronologies.…
Radiocarbon test for demographic events in written and oral history
Significance Indigenous oral traditions remain a very controversial source of historical knowledge in Western scientific, humanistic, and legal traditions. Likewise, demographic models using radiocarbon-based simulation methods are controversial. We rigorously test the historicity of indigenous Tsimshian oral records ( adawx ) using an extended simulation-based method. Our methodology is able to detect short-duration (1–2 centuries) demographic e…
Archaeology (37 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (33 works) · Geography (31 works) · Radiocarbon dating (27 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (21 works) · Geology (16 works) · History (15 works) · Population (15 works) · Demography (14 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (13 works)