Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (168 page)
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Authors: Timothy Darvill
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contract archaeologist
[Ge].
[Ge].
A professional archaeologist whose work programme comprises a series of archaeological projects carried out on behalf of third parties according to the terms of legally binding contracts. Such contracts are usually won through the process of
COMPETITIVE TENDERING
.
COMPETITIVE TENDERING
.
contracted burial
[De].
[De].
contradiction
[Ge].
[Ge].
A term used by Karl Marx to refer to mutually antagonistic tendencies in a society.
control
[Ge].
[Ge].
A statistical or experimental means of holding some variables constant in order to examine the causal influence of others.
contubernium
(pl.
contubernia
)
[Ge].
(pl.
contubernia
)
[Ge].
A Roman tent party—a group of eight men who shared a tent while the legion was on campaign, and two rooms when in barracks.
conventional radiocarbon age
[Ge].
[Ge].
The laboratory determination of the antiquity of organic materials estimated by
RADIOCARBON DATING
. The conventional radiocarbon age is the standard way for reporting determinations and should take the form, as a minimum, of an age estimate in years before the present (BP), a standard deviation, and the laboratory code for the sample tested (e.g. 4678 ± 70 BP HAR-000). It is often useful to indicate what kind of material provided the source sample (e.g. charcoal, wood, bone, or shell). There are a number of assumptions implicit in the citation of a conventional radiocarbon age, for example that the Libby half-life for
14
C of 5568 years was used; that ad 1950 is the reference year zero; that 0.95 NBS oxalic acid provided the modern reference standard; and that radiocarbon years BP are the units used to express the age. See also
CALIBRATION
and
CORRECTED AGE
.
RADIOCARBON DATING
. The conventional radiocarbon age is the standard way for reporting determinations and should take the form, as a minimum, of an age estimate in years before the present (BP), a standard deviation, and the laboratory code for the sample tested (e.g. 4678 ± 70 BP HAR-000). It is often useful to indicate what kind of material provided the source sample (e.g. charcoal, wood, bone, or shell). There are a number of assumptions implicit in the citation of a conventional radiocarbon age, for example that the Libby half-life for
14
C of 5568 years was used; that ad 1950 is the reference year zero; that 0.95 NBS oxalic acid provided the modern reference standard; and that radiocarbon years BP are the units used to express the age. See also
CALIBRATION
and
CORRECTED AGE
.
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