2021 OAS Symposium – Origins and Growth

Session 4 – Oral Histories and Archaeology

Paper 5 - Dating Oral Traditions: Radiocarbon and Bayesian Statistical Analysis

Presenter - Carlton Quinn Shield Chief Gover, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, USA

Abstract - Recent advances in computational analysis have provided archaeologists the means to analyze large sums of information covering broad spans of space and time. Bayesian statistical analysis of radiocarbon data has been primarily utilized to refine cultural chronologies and produce greater precision in identifying cultural shifts in the material record. However, this method of producing highly accurate and precise radiocarbon age determinations can be used to provide absolute dating for events recorded in Indigenous traditions. Using information saved in Indigenous oral traditions has long been heavily criticized in archaeological research for the purpose of interpreting the archaeological record. Furthermore, when Oral tradition data is utilized, it is largely only mentioned in passing to support the author’s interpretations. Indigenous oral traditions should be critically examined, as any other source of information, to provide greater understanding of the pre-Columbian America’s. Using case-studies that focus on dating Indigenous historical events in the Great Plains.