A RESPONSE TO HART AND LOVIS

Hart and Lovis clearly hold different views than do I about how to view incongruities in age determinations on food residue as compared to those on context dates on other short-lived materials. I explain how I came to the conclusions I drew in my earlier study (Roper 2013a) and suggest that I am evaluating my results, and those of others, by looking for patterns in the incongruities, rather than individually explaining away incongruent dates. I also briefly review some work with a collaborator being undertaken to correct the obvious problem with age-offset dates on residue.