Typo-chronology for the Mesolithic between 9000 and 7800 cal BC in Central Europe: a new approach to use constrained correspondence analysis (CCA) of microliths for dating

Abstract

Microlith types are of crucial significance for relative dating of Mesolithic assemblages as well as for assigning them to cultural traditions. This is especially important for assessing inventories from surface collections and old excavations. Here we present a new way of multivariate analysis to relate microlith type spectra to chronology. Our data set comprises 34 radiocarbon-dated microlith assemblages from Germany and the BeNeLux region dating to the Early Mesolithic and the early Middle Mesolithic
(c. 9000 to c. 7800 cal BC, i.e. later Preboreal to early middle Boreal) as well as two radiometrically undated assemblages. The typological classification of the assemblages is submitted to a constrained correspondence analysis (CCA) using calibrated radiocarbon age of assemblages (cal BC) as a constraint. As an innovation we apply a so called calibration of the CCA model – not to be confused with calibrating radiocarbon dates (!) – to estimate the cal BC dates for the two assemblages which had
no specific dating information. Besides the canonical chronological ordering of the assemblages the CCA triplot also shows interesting features related to geographical regions and cultural traditions, which require further investigations.

Keywords
Early and Middle Mesolithic, north western Central Europe, typology of Mesolithic microliths, C14-dating, CCA (constrained correspondence analysis), CCA calibration model

• C14-dates
• ams-dates
• mesolithic chronology
• microliths
• typology

Resources

• https://www.weltunderde.com/b%C3%BCcher/edition-mesolithikum/from-the-early-preboreal-to-the-subboreal-period-current-mesolithic-research-in-europe-studies-in-honour-of-bernhard-gramsch/
• 16_Gehlen_et_al_Typochronology_complete_net.pdf

Bibliography

Gehlen, B., Roth, G., Schneid, N., Zander, A. (2020): Typo-chronology for the Mesolithic between 9000 and 7800 cal BC in Central Europe: a new approach to use constrained correspondence analysis (CCA) of microliths for dating. Welt und Erde Verlag. Mesolithic Edition / Edition Mesolithikum. From the Early Preboreal to the Subboreal period − Current Mesolithic research in Europe. Studies in honour of Bernhard Gramsch., Vol. 5