Saturday, August 22, 2020

IntCal is here!

Here is the latest international radiocarbon calibration: IntCal20. It was going to be "IntCal19" but, clearly, it got delayed too far. I've been awaiting this for at least a year.

We learn here that these are northern nations. The Global South uses SHCal; the oceans, MarineCal. The various articles are in 12 August Radiocarbon - back to 53 kBC. Reimer's is the main one - open access no less!

Tree-rings take us to 11900 BC, in the Bølling/Allerød = Heinrich Stadial 1 before the Younger Dryas (10900) and contemporary Clovis. IntCal20 would move Laacher See 11000s BC: prior to the YD. Before that they use speleothems: cave-formations, like stalactites.

The changes to the IntCal13 dataset involve Amstel Castle, which couldn't be salvaged so is herewith deleted; and a Kodiak tree "correction", which turned out not to be an outlier so is rehabilitated. Some Irish Oak is now demoted to a "comparison", ancillary role; other Irish Oak was accidentally omitted from '13 so, now, introduced. IntCal20 also take into account the recently-found C-14 spikes.

Oh, and Thera's here! Or "Most-Beautiful", for Canaanites; "Round", in the Hellenic legendarium. That's in other articles in this issue.

I get the general impression that from the Bronze Age on back, this calibration is More Accurate, Less Precise. Perhaps why I had to be informed by commenter rando Dearieme and not by, say, Saraceni.

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