Bevan, A;
Crema, ER;
(2021)
Modifiable reporting unit problems and time series of long-term human activity.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
, 376
(1816)
, Article 20190726. 10.1098/rstb.2019.0726.
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Abstract
This paper responds to a resurgence of interest in constructing long-term time proxies of human activity, especially but not limited to models of population change over the Pleistocene and/or Holocene. While very much agreeing with the need for this increased attention, we emphasize three important issues that can all be thought of as modifiable reporting unit problems: the impact of (i) archaeological periodization, (ii) uneven event durations and (iii) geographical nucleation-dispersal phenomena. Drawing inspiration from real-world examples from prehistoric Britain, Greece and Japan, we explore their consequences and possible mitigation via a reproducible set of tactical simulations. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cross-disciplinary approaches to prehistoric demography’.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Modifiable reporting unit problems and time series of long-term human activity |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rstb.2019.0726 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0726 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Keywords: | research bias, population, radio, carbon, settlement, archaeology |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10116350 |
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