Radiometric dates are a robust proxy for long-term demographic change: a comment on Attenbrow and Hiscock (2015)

Attenbrow and Hiscock (2015) raise a series of concerns about the use of radiocarbon dates as data (sum probability distributions), including sample selection, taphonomic bias, and the relationship of charcoal and radiocarbon data to human activity. We show that these concerns have been widely acknowledged and addressed in the literature. We advocate the considered use of dates as data approaches as a heuristic tool for broad regional- and continental-scale questions, used in conjunction with other archaeological proxies, and within the constraints of documented and well-known methodological limitations