Hyenahall’s Reindeer Question
Calendar conversion must not be mistaken for precision. Radiocarbon laboratories conventionally measure ages in years “before present”, where present means AD 1950, but the concentration of atmospheric carbon-14 has changed through time. Results must consequently be calibrated against independently dated records, and the resulting calendar estimates are ranges, not single dates. At more than 30,000 years ago those ranges can be broad. The modern label 30,851 BCE may therefore be used to locate this article in time, but not to assign an animal death, a journey, a hunting episode or an ice advance to a named twelve-month period.