Seren Griffiths
Biographic Data
| ID | 5597958 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Seren Griffiths |
| GIVEN NAMES | Seren |
| FAMILY NAME | Griffiths |
| SIGNATURE | GRIFFITHS S |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 48 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Revisiting Knap of Howar, Papa Westray, Orkney
The Neolithic stone houses at Knap of Howar (Papa Westray, Orkney) are acknowledged as among the most complete in Northwest Europe. The site, a Property in Care, was first investigated in the 1930s and subsequently by Dr Anna Ritchie in the 1970s. The interpretation of the buildings as an Early Neolithic ‘Unstan’ settlement has been under review for some time, however, and fieldwork commissioned by Historic Environment Scotland provided the oppor…
Time and Change in Mesolithic Britain c . 9800–3600 cal bc
The Mesolithic has been characterised as temporally homogeneous: a period of stagnation or degeneration with hunter-gatherers focused on routine economic practices in an endlessly repeating seasonal round. Characterisation of the Mesolithic as timeless and unchanging derives in part from our current poor internal chronological resolution, which appears even more acute given the recent ground-breaking advances for chronological precision in adjace…
The Early Bronze Age Log Coffin Burials of Britain
This paper describes the results from a project to obtain radiocarbon determinations from Early Bronze Age log coffin burials. Log coffins have been recognised as a burial tradition since antiquarian excavations uncovered the first examples. However, comparatively few are associated with radiocarbon determinations and many old determinations are very imprecise. To address this, seven log coffin burials were identified across England, and 11 sampl…
The Milky Way
In the light of discussions surrounding the social changes attributed to the arrival of the Corded Ware culture in central Europe, here we investigate the economic strategies of one of the cultural complexes of the immediately preceding Late Neolithic. The Cham culture of southern Bavaria is characterised by a variety of economic choices but problems remain in synthesising and combining archaeozoological and archaeobotanical evidence. Using lipid…
Dorstone Hill
Studies of early fourth-millennium BC Britain have typically focused on the Early Neolithic sites of Wessex and Orkney; what can the investigation of sites located in areas beyond these core regions add? The authors report on excavations (2011-2019) at Dorstone Hill in Herefordshire, which have revealed a remarkable complex of Early Neolithic monuments: three long barrows constructed on the footprints of three timber buildings that had been delib…
The Emergence of Extramural Cemeteries in Neolithic Southeast Europe
The emergence of separate cemeteries for disposal of the dead represents a profound shift in mortuary practice in the Late Neolithic of southeast Europe, with a new emphasis on the repeated use of a specific space distinct from, though still often close to, settlements. To help to time this shift more precisely, this paper presents 25 dates from 21 burials in the large cemetery at Cernica, in the Lower Danube valley in southern Romania, which are…
The 8.2 ka BP Holocene climate change event and human population resilience in northwest Atlantic Europe
Enclosing the Neolithic World
Interpretations of prehistoric enclosures worldwide have varied from those that see the primary role of enclosures as defensive features to others that explore the symbolic, ritual, social, and ideological dimensions of separating space into an inside, an outside, and an in-between. Such evidence and interpretative accounts are inevitably linked to wider anthropological discussions on modes of social interaction and reproduction in the past, whet…
Stepping Stones to the Neolithic? Radiocarbon Dating the Early Neolithic on Islands Within the ‘Western Seaways’ of Britain
The western seaways – an arc of sea stretching from the Channel Islands in the south, up through the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Man, and the Outer Hebrides to Orkney in the north – have long been seen as crucial to our understanding of the processes which led to the arrival of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland in the centuries around 4000 cal bc . The western seaways have not, however, been considered in detail within any of the recent studi…
The Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition and the Chronology of the “elm decline”
The Neolithic in Britain saw the first appearance of domestic plant and animal resources, pottery, polished stone axes, monuments, and new house structures. With the introduction of domesticates and associated subsistence strategies, the Neolithic represents a significant change in human–environment interaction. Other changes have been observed in the palynological record of Britain in the early fourth millennium cal BC, including the elm decline…
We’re All Cultural Historians Now
Radiocarbon dating has had profound implications for archaeological understanding. These have been identified as various “revolutions,” with the latest—Bayesian chronological statistical analyses of large datasets—hailed as a “revolution in understanding.” This paper argues that the full implications of radiocarbon ( 14 C) data and interpretation on archaeological theory have yet to be recognized, and it suggests that responses in Britain to earl…
Beside the Ocean of Time
Settlement Duration and Materiality
Radiocarbon dating and Bayesian chronological modelling, undertaken as part of the investigation by the Times of Their Lives project into the development of Late Neolithic settlement and pottery in Orkney, has provided precise new dating for the Grooved Ware settlement of Barnhouse, excavated in 1985–91. Previous understandings of the site and its pottery are presented. A Bayesian model based on 70 measurements on 62 samples (of which 50 samples …
The Living and The Dead, Memory and Transition
The paper applies B ayesian statistical modelling to radiocarbon dates obtained for a stratigraphic sequence comprising occupation features and superimposed burials from the Late Mesolithic ( c .7400–6200 cal BC ) to the M esolithic– N eolithic transition ( c .6200–5900 cal BC ), from Vlasac in the D anube G orges region of the north‐central Balkans. This sequence, investigated in the course of excavations at the site in 2006–9, yielded stratigra…
Refining the Chronology of the Neolithic Settlement at Pool, Sanday, Orkney
New radiocarbon dates for the Neolithic settlement at Pool on Sanday, Orkney, are interpreted in a formal chronological framework. Phases 2.2 and 2.3, during which flat-based Grooved Ware pottery with incised decoration developed, have been modelled as probably dating to between the 31st and 28th centuries cal bc . There followed a hiatus of a century or so, before the resumption of occupation in Phase 3, which has a different Grooved Ware style …
Points in Time
This paper presents the results of the Bayesian statistical modelling of radiocarbon dates associated with diagnostic late M esolithic rod microliths from England and Wales. These date estimates are compared with results for the earliest evidence for Neolithic material culture and practices in B ritain (Whittle et al. 2011; Griffiths 2011; 2014; forthcoming). The chronology of some rod microlith sites indicates a potential overlap between the ear…
Simulations and Outputs
Bayesian analysis is now routinely applied for the construction of site-specific stratigraphic chronological models. Other approaches have analyzed the chronology of phases of archaeological activity across regions. The available radiocarbon results—the nature of the samples and their associations—provide the basis for what chronological questions it is possible to address for any site or region. In dealing with regional analyses, due considerati…
Dates, Diet, and Dismemberment
We present radiocarbon dates, stable isotope data, and osteological analysis of the remains of a minimum of 17 individuals deposited in the western part of the burial chamber at Coldrum, Kent. This is one of the Medway group of megalithic monuments – sites with shared architectural motifs and no very close parallels elsewhere in Britain – whose location has been seen as important in terms of the origins of Neolithic material culture and practices…
Stepping Stones to the Neolithic? Radiocarbon Dating the Early Neolithic on Islands Within the ‘Western Seaways’ of Britain
The western seaways – an arc of sea stretching from the Channel Islands in the south, up through the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Man, and the Outer Hebrides to Orkney in the north – have long been seen as crucial to our understanding of the processes which led to the arrival of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland in the centuries around 4000 cal bc . The western seaways have not, however, been considered in detail within any of the recent studi…
Settlement Duration and Materiality
Radiocarbon dating and Bayesian chronological modelling, undertaken as part of the investigation by the Times of Their Lives project into the development of Late Neolithic settlement and pottery in Orkney, has provided precise new dating for the Grooved Ware settlement of Barnhouse, excavated in 1985–91. Previous understandings of the site and its pottery are presented. A Bayesian model based on 70 measurements on 62 samples (of which 50 samples …
Dates, Diet, and Dismemberment
We present radiocarbon dates, stable isotope data, and osteological analysis of the remains of a minimum of 17 individuals deposited in the western part of the burial chamber at Coldrum, Kent. This is one of the Medway group of megalithic monuments – sites with shared architectural motifs and no very close parallels elsewhere in Britain – whose location has been seen as important in terms of the origins of Neolithic material culture and practices…
We’re All Cultural Historians Now
Radiocarbon dating has had profound implications for archaeological understanding. These have been identified as various “revolutions,” with the latest—Bayesian chronological statistical analyses of large datasets—hailed as a “revolution in understanding.” This paper argues that the full implications of radiocarbon ( 14 C) data and interpretation on archaeological theory have yet to be recognized, and it suggests that responses in Britain to earl…
Enclosing the Neolithic World
Interpretations of prehistoric enclosures worldwide have varied from those that see the primary role of enclosures as defensive features to others that explore the symbolic, ritual, social, and ideological dimensions of separating space into an inside, an outside, and an in-between. Such evidence and interpretative accounts are inevitably linked to wider anthropological discussions on modes of social interaction and reproduction in the past, whet…
Points in Time
This paper presents the results of the Bayesian statistical modelling of radiocarbon dates associated with diagnostic late M esolithic rod microliths from England and Wales. These date estimates are compared with results for the earliest evidence for Neolithic material culture and practices in B ritain (Whittle et al. 2011; Griffiths 2011; 2014; forthcoming). The chronology of some rod microlith sites indicates a potential overlap between the ear…
The Living and The Dead, Memory and Transition
The paper applies B ayesian statistical modelling to radiocarbon dates obtained for a stratigraphic sequence comprising occupation features and superimposed burials from the Late Mesolithic ( c .7400–6200 cal BC ) to the M esolithic– N eolithic transition ( c .6200–5900 cal BC ), from Vlasac in the D anube G orges region of the north‐central Balkans. This sequence, investigated in the course of excavations at the site in 2006–9, yielded stratigra…
Refining the Chronology of the Neolithic Settlement at Pool, Sanday, Orkney
New radiocarbon dates for the Neolithic settlement at Pool on Sanday, Orkney, are interpreted in a formal chronological framework. Phases 2.2 and 2.3, during which flat-based Grooved Ware pottery with incised decoration developed, have been modelled as probably dating to between the 31st and 28th centuries cal bc . There followed a hiatus of a century or so, before the resumption of occupation in Phase 3, which has a different Grooved Ware style …
Simulations and Outputs
Bayesian analysis is now routinely applied for the construction of site-specific stratigraphic chronological models. Other approaches have analyzed the chronology of phases of archaeological activity across regions. The available radiocarbon results—the nature of the samples and their associations—provide the basis for what chronological questions it is possible to address for any site or region. In dealing with regional analyses, due considerati…
The Milky Way
In the light of discussions surrounding the social changes attributed to the arrival of the Corded Ware culture in central Europe, here we investigate the economic strategies of one of the cultural complexes of the immediately preceding Late Neolithic. The Cham culture of southern Bavaria is characterised by a variety of economic choices but problems remain in synthesising and combining archaeozoological and archaeobotanical evidence. Using lipid…
Dorstone Hill
Studies of early fourth-millennium BC Britain have typically focused on the Early Neolithic sites of Wessex and Orkney; what can the investigation of sites located in areas beyond these core regions add? The authors report on excavations (2011-2019) at Dorstone Hill in Herefordshire, which have revealed a remarkable complex of Early Neolithic monuments: three long barrows constructed on the footprints of three timber buildings that had been delib…
The Emergence of Extramural Cemeteries in Neolithic Southeast Europe
The emergence of separate cemeteries for disposal of the dead represents a profound shift in mortuary practice in the Late Neolithic of southeast Europe, with a new emphasis on the repeated use of a specific space distinct from, though still often close to, settlements. To help to time this shift more precisely, this paper presents 25 dates from 21 burials in the large cemetery at Cernica, in the Lower Danube valley in southern Romania, which are…
Dates, Diet, and Dismemberment
We present radiocarbon dates, stable isotope data, and osteological analysis of the remains of a minimum of 17 individuals deposited in the western part of the burial chamber at Coldrum, Kent. This is one of the Medway group of megalithic monuments – sites with shared architectural motifs and no very close parallels elsewhere in Britain – whose location has been seen as important in terms of the origins of Neolithic material culture and practices…
Points in Time
This paper presents the results of the Bayesian statistical modelling of radiocarbon dates associated with diagnostic late M esolithic rod microliths from England and Wales. These date estimates are compared with results for the earliest evidence for Neolithic material culture and practices in B ritain (Whittle et al. 2011; Griffiths 2011; 2014; forthcoming). The chronology of some rod microlith sites indicates a potential overlap between the ear…
Simulations and Outputs
Bayesian analysis is now routinely applied for the construction of site-specific stratigraphic chronological models. Other approaches have analyzed the chronology of phases of archaeological activity across regions. The available radiocarbon results—the nature of the samples and their associations—provide the basis for what chronological questions it is possible to address for any site or region. In dealing with regional analyses, due considerati…
The Living and The Dead, Memory and Transition
The paper applies B ayesian statistical modelling to radiocarbon dates obtained for a stratigraphic sequence comprising occupation features and superimposed burials from the Late Mesolithic ( c .7400–6200 cal BC ) to the M esolithic– N eolithic transition ( c .6200–5900 cal BC ), from Vlasac in the D anube G orges region of the north‐central Balkans. This sequence, investigated in the course of excavations at the site in 2006–9, yielded stratigra…
Refining the Chronology of the Neolithic Settlement at Pool, Sanday, Orkney
New radiocarbon dates for the Neolithic settlement at Pool on Sanday, Orkney, are interpreted in a formal chronological framework. Phases 2.2 and 2.3, during which flat-based Grooved Ware pottery with incised decoration developed, have been modelled as probably dating to between the 31st and 28th centuries cal bc . There followed a hiatus of a century or so, before the resumption of occupation in Phase 3, which has a different Grooved Ware style …
Beside the Ocean of Time
Settlement Duration and Materiality
Radiocarbon dating and Bayesian chronological modelling, undertaken as part of the investigation by the Times of Their Lives project into the development of Late Neolithic settlement and pottery in Orkney, has provided precise new dating for the Grooved Ware settlement of Barnhouse, excavated in 1985–91. Previous understandings of the site and its pottery are presented. A Bayesian model based on 70 measurements on 62 samples (of which 50 samples …
Stepping Stones to the Neolithic? Radiocarbon Dating the Early Neolithic on Islands Within the ‘Western Seaways’ of Britain
The western seaways – an arc of sea stretching from the Channel Islands in the south, up through the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Man, and the Outer Hebrides to Orkney in the north – have long been seen as crucial to our understanding of the processes which led to the arrival of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland in the centuries around 4000 cal bc . The western seaways have not, however, been considered in detail within any of the recent studi…
The Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition and the Chronology of the “elm decline”
The Neolithic in Britain saw the first appearance of domestic plant and animal resources, pottery, polished stone axes, monuments, and new house structures. With the introduction of domesticates and associated subsistence strategies, the Neolithic represents a significant change in human–environment interaction. Other changes have been observed in the palynological record of Britain in the early fourth millennium cal BC, including the elm decline…
We’re All Cultural Historians Now
Radiocarbon dating has had profound implications for archaeological understanding. These have been identified as various “revolutions,” with the latest—Bayesian chronological statistical analyses of large datasets—hailed as a “revolution in understanding.” This paper argues that the full implications of radiocarbon ( 14 C) data and interpretation on archaeological theory have yet to be recognized, and it suggests that responses in Britain to earl…
The 8.2 ka BP Holocene climate change event and human population resilience in northwest Atlantic Europe
Enclosing the Neolithic World
Interpretations of prehistoric enclosures worldwide have varied from those that see the primary role of enclosures as defensive features to others that explore the symbolic, ritual, social, and ideological dimensions of separating space into an inside, an outside, and an in-between. Such evidence and interpretative accounts are inevitably linked to wider anthropological discussions on modes of social interaction and reproduction in the past, whet…
The Emergence of Extramural Cemeteries in Neolithic Southeast Europe
The emergence of separate cemeteries for disposal of the dead represents a profound shift in mortuary practice in the Late Neolithic of southeast Europe, with a new emphasis on the repeated use of a specific space distinct from, though still often close to, settlements. To help to time this shift more precisely, this paper presents 25 dates from 21 burials in the large cemetery at Cernica, in the Lower Danube valley in southern Romania, which are…
The Early Bronze Age Log Coffin Burials of Britain
This paper describes the results from a project to obtain radiocarbon determinations from Early Bronze Age log coffin burials. Log coffins have been recognised as a burial tradition since antiquarian excavations uncovered the first examples. However, comparatively few are associated with radiocarbon determinations and many old determinations are very imprecise. To address this, seven log coffin burials were identified across England, and 11 sampl…
The Milky Way
In the light of discussions surrounding the social changes attributed to the arrival of the Corded Ware culture in central Europe, here we investigate the economic strategies of one of the cultural complexes of the immediately preceding Late Neolithic. The Cham culture of southern Bavaria is characterised by a variety of economic choices but problems remain in synthesising and combining archaeozoological and archaeobotanical evidence. Using lipid…
Dorstone Hill
Studies of early fourth-millennium BC Britain have typically focused on the Early Neolithic sites of Wessex and Orkney; what can the investigation of sites located in areas beyond these core regions add? The authors report on excavations (2011-2019) at Dorstone Hill in Herefordshire, which have revealed a remarkable complex of Early Neolithic monuments: three long barrows constructed on the footprints of three timber buildings that had been delib…
Time and Change in Mesolithic Britain c . 9800–3600 cal bc
The Mesolithic has been characterised as temporally homogeneous: a period of stagnation or degeneration with hunter-gatherers focused on routine economic practices in an endlessly repeating seasonal round. Characterisation of the Mesolithic as timeless and unchanging derives in part from our current poor internal chronological resolution, which appears even more acute given the recent ground-breaking advances for chronological precision in adjace…
Revisiting Knap of Howar, Papa Westray, Orkney
The Neolithic stone houses at Knap of Howar (Papa Westray, Orkney) are acknowledged as among the most complete in Northwest Europe. The site, a Property in Care, was first investigated in the 1930s and subsequently by Dr Anna Ritchie in the 1970s. The interpretation of the buildings as an Early Neolithic ‘Unstan’ settlement has been under review for some time, however, and fieldwork commissioned by Historic Environment Scotland provided the oppor…
Archaeology (16 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (16 works) · Geography (15 works) · Radiocarbon dating (12 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (11 works) · History (10 works) · Chronology (9 works) · Geology (8 works) · History (7 works) · Mesolithic (7 works)