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Atomic and Laser Physics
Credit: Jack Hobhouse

Prof Christopher Ramsey

Professor of Archaeological Science

Research theme

  • Accelerator physics
  • Climate physics
  • Instrumentation

Sub department

  • Atomic and Laser Physics
christopher.ramsey@physics.ox.ac.uk
Telephone: 01865285215
School of Archaeology
  • About
  • Publications

Chronology of middle Holocene hunter–gatherers in the Cis-Baikal region of Siberia: Corrections based on examination of the freshwater reservoir effect

Quaternary International Elsevier BV 419 (2016) 74-98

Authors:

Andrzej W Weber, Rick J Schulting, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Vladimir I Bazaliiskii, Olga I Goriunova, Natal'ia E Berdnikova
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Between the Vinča and Linearbandkeramik worlds: the diversity of practices and identities in the 54th–53rd centuries cal BC in south-west Hungary and beyond

Journal of World Prehistory Springer Verlag 29:3 (2016) 267-336

Authors:

Janos Jakucs, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Eszter Banffy, Krisztian Oross, Vanda Voicsek, Elaine Dunbar, Bernd Kromer, Alex Bayliss, Daniela Hoffman, Peter Marshall, Alasdair Whittle

Abstract:

Szederkény-Kukorica-dűlő is a large settlement in south-east Transdanubia, Hungary, excavated in advance of road construction, which is notable for its combination of pottery styles, variously including Vinča A, Ražište and LBK, and longhouses of a kind otherwise familiar from the LBK world. Formal modelling of its date establishes that the site probably began in the later 54th century cal BC, lasting until the first decades of the 52nd century cal BC. Occupation, featuring longhouses, pits and graves, probably began at the same time on the east and west parts of the settlement, the central part starting a decade or two later; the western part was probably abandoned last. Vinča pottery is predominantly associated with the east and central parts of the site, and Ražište pottery with the west. Formal modelling of the early history of longhouses in the LBK world suggests their emergence in the Formative LBK of Transdanubia c. 5500 cal BC and then rapid diaspora in the middle of the 54th century cal BC, associated with the ‘earliest’ (älteste) LBK. The adoption of longhouses at Szederkény thus appears to come a few generations after the start of the diaspora. Rather than explaining the mixture of things, practices and perhaps people at Szederkény by reference to problematic notions such as hybridity, we propose instead a more fluid and varied vocabulary including combination and amalgamation, relationships and performance in the flow of social life, and networks; this makes greater allowance for diversity and interleaving in a context of rapid change.
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House time: Neolithic settlement development at Racot during the 5th millennium CAL B.C. in the Polish lowlands

Journal of Field Archaeology Taylor & Francis 41:5 (2016) 618-640

Authors:

Lech Czerniak, Arkadiusz Marciniak, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Elaine Dunbar, Tomasz Goslar, Alistair Barclay, Alex Bayliss, Alasdair Whittle
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Integrated tree-ring-radiocarbon high-resolution timeframe to resolve earlier second millennium BCE Mesopotamian chronology

PLoS One Public Library of Science 11:7 (2016) e0157144

Authors:

Sturt W Manning, Carol B Griggs, Brita Lorentzen, Gojko Barjamovic, Christopher B Ramsey, Bernd Kromer, Eva M Wild

Abstract:

500 years of ancient Near Eastern history from the earlier second millennium BCE, including such pivotal figures as Hammurabi of Babylon, Šamši-Adad I (who conquered Aššur) and Zimrilim of Mari, has long floated in calendar time subject to rival chronological schemes up to 150+ years apart. Texts preserved on clay tablets provide much information, including some astronomical references, but despite 100+ years of scholarly effort, chronological resolution has proved impossible. Documents linked with specific Assyrian officials and rulers have been found and associated with archaeological wood samples at Kültepe and Acemhöyük in Turkey, and offer the potential to resolve this long-running problem. Here we show that previous work using tree-ring dating to place these timbers in absolute time has fundamental problems with key dendrochronological crossdates due to small sample numbers in overlapping years and insufficient critical assessment. To address, we have integrated secure dendrochronological sequences directly with radiocarbon (14C) measurements to achieve tightly resolved absolute (calendar) chronological associations and identify the secure links of this tree-ring chronology with the archaeological-historical evidence. The revised tree-ring-sequenced 14C time-series for Kültepe and Acemhöyük is compatible only with the so-called Middle Chronology and not with the rival High, Low or New Chronologies. This finding provides a robust resolution to a century of uncertainty in Mesopotamian chronology and scholarship, and a secure basis for construction of a coherent timeframe and history across the Near East and East Mediterranean in the earlier second millennium BCE. Our re-dating also affects an unusual tree-ring growth anomaly in wood from Porsuk, Turkey, previously tentatively associated with the Minoan eruption of the Santorini volcano. This tree-ring growth anomaly is now directly dated ~1681–1673 BCE (68.2% highest posterior density range), ~20 years earlier than previous assessments, indicating that it likely has no association with the subsequent Santorini volcanic eruption.
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The use of the terrestrial snails of the genera Megalobulimus and Thaumastus as representatives of the atmospheric carbon reservoir

Scientific Reports Nature Publishing Group: Open Access Journals - Option C 6 (2016)

Authors:

Kita Macario, Eduardo Alves, Carla Carvalho, Fabiana Oliveira, Christopher Ramsey, David Chivall, Rosa Souza, Luiz Simone, Daniel Cavallari

Abstract:

In Brazilian archaeological shellmounds, many species of land snails are found abundantly distributed throughout the occupational layers, forming a contextualized set of samples within the sites and offering a potential alternative to the use of charcoal for radiocarbon dating analyses. In order to confirm the effectiveness of this alternative, one needs to prove that the mollusk shells reflect the atmospheric carbon isotopic concentration in the same way charcoal does. In this study, 18 terrestrial mollusk shells with known collection dates from 1948 to 2004 AD, around the nuclear bombs period, were radiocarbon dated. The obtained dates fit the SH1-2 bomb curve within less than 15 years range, showing that certain species from the Thaumastus and Megalobulimus genera are reliable representatives of the atmospheric carbon isotopic ratio and can, therefore, be used to date archaeological sites in South America.
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