Question

Dating Artifacts. In the paper "Reassessment of TL Age Estimates of Burnt Flint from the Paleolithic Site of Tabun Cave, Israel" (Joumal of Human Evolution, Vol. 45, Issue 5, Pp. 401-409),N. Mercier and H. Valladas discussed the re-dating of artifacts and human remains found at Tabun Cave by using new methodological improvements. A random sample of 18 excavated picces yielded the following new thermoluminescence (TL) ages, in thousands of years.

195	243	215	282	361	222
237	266	244	251	282	290
276	248	357	301	224	191

Short answer

The graphical representations we find that there is no outlier in the data and the variable under consideration is approximately normally distributed since the normal probability plot is roughly linear. Hence, it is reasonable to use t-interval procedure on the given data.

Step-by-step solution

Given Information

Using Minitab we obtain probability plot, box plot, Histogram and stem-and-leaf plot of the data

Tabulation

Stem-and-Leaf Display: AGE

Leaf Unit=10

Stem Leaf

2	1	99
3	2	1
6	2	223
(4)	2	4445
8	2	67
6	2	889
3	3	0
2	3
2	3	5
1	3	6

Step : Explanation

Here the sample size n=18 is moderate. From the graphical representations we find that there is no outlier in the data and the variable under consideration is approximately normally distributed since the normal probability plot is roughly linear. Hence, it is reasonable to use t-interval procedure on the given data.