Geoarchaeology
Geoarchaeology
Calculators & Tools
Soil Layer Depth Calculator
The Soil Layer Depth Calculator converts a field depth-below-datum (DBD) reading into an absolute site elevation, accounting for a separate unit datum offset where used. It also calculates a stratum's average thickness, thickness range, and estimated volume from top and bottom DBD readings taken at multiple points across an excavation unit's floor, flagging strata that slope noticeably from corner to corner.
Pollen Count Percentage Calculator
The Pollen Count Percentage Calculator works out each taxon's percentage of the pollen sum, following the standard convention of excluding aquatic taxa, sedges, and spores from the sum itself. It also calculates the arboreal-to-non-arboreal (AP:NAP) ratio used to gauge forest cover and land clearance, plus a 95% confidence interval for a reported percentage based on total count size.
Dendrochronology Alignment Calculator
The Dendrochronology Alignment Calculator works out the Gleichlaufigkeit (percentage of parallel variation) and Baillie-Pilcher t-value between two standardized ring-width index series at a candidate overlap position. Its best-fit offset search mode slides a floating sample across a longer master chronology and ranks every tested position by statistical strength, flagging an ambiguous match when two offsets score closely together.
Obsidian Hydration Dating Calculator
The Obsidian Hydration Dating Calculator converts a measured hydration rim thickness and a source-specific rate constant into an estimated age using the standard quadratic diffusion relationship. Its calibration mode works the same relationship in reverse, deriving a local rate constant from a rim measured on obsidian associated with an independently dated context, the real method used to establish rate constants for a given obsidian source.