Charcoal Sediment Data Description

File Naming Convention:
File names consist of 8 characters describing the location, followed by a 3 character extension. 
The first 2 characters represent the two letter International Organization for Standardization 
(ISO) country code. (https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#search)


The next three characters represent the site code, which is typically comprised 
of the first three letters of the site name. The last three characters are a sequential numeric 
index used to uniquely identify files for sites with replicate samples or chronologies, or those 
with duplicate country and site codes. The charcoal sediment data files all have the extension "txt", 
while accompanying magnetic susceptibility and loss on ignition files have the extensions 
"mag" and "loi", respectively.


Data File Format:
All data files are ASCII text files, and each data file contains 2 sections; a Comments section, 
and a Data section. The Comments section includes site information, radiocarbon dates, publications, 
etc., and all Comment lines begin with a pound sign (#). The Data section begins with a listing 
of the variables. Each variable is listed with a sequential integer, which corresponds to the position 
of the data value for that variable in the data section, as well as a description of the measurement 
(e.g., unit, and count or concentration). The data then follow in tabular format. Accompanying magnetic 
susceptibility and loss on ignition files are available when provided by the investigator.