UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
RADIOCARBON ACCELERATOR UNIT
OxCal Program v3.10
(c) Copyright Christopher Bronk Ramsey 2005
The Manual
The OxCal program is intended to provide radiocarbon calibration
and analysis of archaeological stratigraphy. The program runs under
Microsoft Windows 95 on IBM PC compatibles.
The program is simple to use for basic
radiocarbon calibration for which results are given
both in text and graphical form.
Models based on archaeological or geological information
can be included in the analysis. The information for such analysis can
be entered using the windows interface or in the
form of text command files.
09/02/05
WARNING
The Bayesian analysis part of this program provides the
ability to perform calculation based on complex models. It is possible
to create models which may bias your data in ways you do not intend
(see, for example, Steier and Rom 2000 and comments
(Bronk Ramsey 2000)
on that paper).
In particular the use of 'Boundaries' is very important where
there are many poorly distiguished data-points. If you are unsure about your
models please ask for advice, either from an experienced user of the program,
or the author.
Program References
If you use this program, you should quote the reference for the calibration
curve used, the version of OxCal (with any non-standard options set) and the
references Bronk Ramsey 1995 and
Bronk Ramsey 2001. If you are
wiggle-matching tree-ring sequences you should quote
Bronk Ramsey, van der Plicht and
Weninger 2001.
For further information contact the author:
Dr. C. Bronk Ramsey
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit
Research Lab for Archaeology
6 Keble Rd.
Oxford OX1 3QJ
U.K.
christopher.ramsey@rlaha.ox.ac.uk