Figure 1.

Illustration of the structure of the model used to simulate effects of age-dependent preservation bias and population growth on the distribution of radiocarbon dates through time. Occupied sites are indicated by solid horizontal lines. Sites may be abandoned (a), after which evidence of occupation may persist (dashed line) for some time until it is erased (e). Previously occupied sites may be re-occupied (o), and new sites founded (f) from existing sites. Sites that have been abandoned and erased before the present are invisible, so that while turnover maintains a near-constant number of occupied sites, the number of known sites increases towards the present.