Alex Bayli
Biographic Data
| ID | 82646 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alex Bayli |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alex |
| FAMILY NAME | Bayli |
| SIGNATURE | BAYLI A |
| AFFILIATIONS | English Heritage |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2782-1979 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 91 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6253 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 91 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 20 |
Vehicles of change
Two exceptional metalwork deposits, discovered at Melsonby, North Yorkshire, together constitute one of the largest Iron Age hoards recovered in Britain. Dominated by ornate horse harness and vehicle parts, these first-century AD assemblages provide possibly the first evidence for four-wheeled wagons from Iron Age Britain. Associated geographically and temporally with another hoard found in 1843 and with the Late Iron Age ‘royal site’ at Stanwick…
Establishing a Chronology for Roman and Post-Roman Stanwick, Northamptonshire
The programme of radiocarbon dating undertaken at Stanwick, Northamptonshire, demonstrates the value of scientific dating of Romano-British sites, including those with good pottery sequences and large numbers of datable coins and other finds. It has refined and clarified the chronology and phasing of the site, particularly in its final phase of occupation. It confirmed some of our original dating of the human burials, and showed other dates were …
Monumental and Long-Lasting or Temporary and Performative? How did Neolithic Rondels Function? Radiocarbon Dating and Bayesian Chronological Modeling of the Rondel at Nowe Objezierze (Northwestern Pol…
Radiocarbon dating and Bayesian chronology modeling have provided precise dating for the rondel at Nowe Objezierze (northwestern Poland). This monument, located in the farthest reaches of the “Danubian World,” sheds new light on rondels and the way they functioned. A total of 44 radiocarbon dates are now available for the site, and modeling of these (taking into account depositional processes and the results of palynological analysis) has identif…
Caveat emptor !—wiggle-matching European wood samples (AD 46–AD 286)
This study suggests that there may be considerable difficulties in providing accurate calendar age estimates in the Roman period in Europe, between ca. AD 60 and ca. AD 230, using the radiocarbon calibration datasets that are currently available. Incorporating the potential for systematic offsets between the measured data and the calibration curve using the ΔR approach suggested by Hogg et al. (2019), only marginally mitigates the biases in calen…
Development of the Intcal Database
The IntCal family of radiocarbon ( 14 C) calibration curves is based on research spanning more than three decades. The IntCal group have collated the 14 C and calendar age data (mostly derived from primary publications with other types of data and meta-data) and, since 2010, made them available for other sorts of analysis through an open-access database. This has ensured transparency in terms of the data used in the construction of the ratified c…
Radiocarbon dating of lipids preserved in pottery vessels
Pottery vessels played a central role in the processing, storage and transport of animal and plant products by prehistoric and historic peoples with their chemical residues surviving for thousands of years. Accurate radiocarbon dating of archaeological pottery vessels by isolating reliable sources of carbon relating to the use of pots has long been a major challenge, but is now possible using compound-specific radiocarbon analysis of absorbed org…
Some Balaton-Lasinja Graves from Veszprém-Jutasi Út and an Outline Chronology for the Earlier Copper Age in Western Hungary
A handful of new radiocarbon dates from three Balaton-Lasinja culture graves at the site of Veszprém-Jutasi út in western Hungary form the starting point for formal models for late Lengyel and post-Lengyel chronology in that region. The graves date to the later fifth millennium cal BC. They provide the opportunity to put the earlier Copper Age Balaton-Lasinja culture of Transdanubia into its regional and wider context, and to highlight both gradu…
A history of the LBK in the central Polish lowlands
A new chronological study of the LBK in the central Polish lowlands shows that it emerged later, lasted for a shorter period, and ended sooner than has been supposed up till now. LBK communities emerged, probably in the middle of the 53 rd century cal BC, to form an enclave in the central Polish lowlands, probably as a result of colonisation from loess areas in the south of Poland. Settlement steadily intensified throughout the 52 nd century cal …
Landscapes for Neolithic People in Mainland, Orkney
Neolithic occupation of the Orkney Islands, in the north of Scotland, probably began in the mid fourth millennium cal BC, culminating in a range of settlements, including stone-built houses, varied stone-built tombs and two noteworthy stone circles. The environmental and landscape context of the spectacular archaeology, however, remains poorly understood. We applied the Multiple Scenario Approach (MSA) to Neolithic pollen records from Mainland, O…
Compound-specific radiocarbon dating of lipid residues in pottery vessels
Contemporary Copper Age Burials From the Varna Mortuary Zone, Bulgaria
The Copper Age cemetery in Varna, Bulgaria, is famous for the earliest known, massive deposition of exquisite golden artefacts. Radiocarbon dating of the Varna i cemetery, excavated in the period 1972–91, places it in the mid-fifth millennium bc and suggests a duration of c 225 years from c 4550 to c 4325 cal bc . Construction work in the adjacent area (2.5 km to the east of Varna i cemetery) in December 2017 led to the discovery of sixteen new g…
Dividing the Land
Land divisions are ubiquitous features of the British countryside. Field boundaries, enclosures, pit alignments, and other forms of land division have been used to shape and delineate the landscape over thousands of years. While these divisions are critical for understanding economies and subsistence, the organization of tenure and property, social structure and identity, and their histories of use have remained unclear. Here, the authors present…
IntCal20 Tree Rings
We undertook a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of Northern Hemisphere tree-ring datasets included in IntCal20 in order to evaluate their strategic fit with the demands of archaeological users. Case studies on wiggle-matching single tree rings from timbers in historic buildings and Bayesian modeling of series of results on archaeological samples from Neolithic long barrows in central-southern England exemplify the…
Annual Variation in Atmospheric 14 C Between 1700 BC and 1480 BC
In 2018 Pearson et al. published a new sequence of annual radiocarbon ( 14 C) data derived from oak ( Quercus sp.) trees from Northern Ireland and bristlecone pine ( Pinus longaeva ) from North America across the period 1700–1500 BC. The study indicated that the more highly resolved shape of an annually based calibration dataset could improve the accuracy of 14 C calibration during this period. This finding had implications for the controversial …
SHCal20 Southern Hemisphere Calibration, 0–55,000 Years cal BP
Early researchers of radiocarbon levels in Southern Hemisphere tree rings identified a variable North-South hemispheric offset, necessitating construction of a separate radiocarbon calibration curve for the South. We present here SHCal20, a revised calibration curve from 0–55,000 cal BP, based upon SHCal13 and fortified by the addition of 14 new tree-ring data sets in the 2140–0, 3520–3453, 3608–3590 and 13,140–11,375 cal BP time intervals. We de…
The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP)
Radiocarbon ( 14 C) ages cannot provide absolutely dated chronologies for archaeological or paleoenvironmental studies directly but must be converted to calendar age equivalents using a calibration curve compensating for fluctuations in atmospheric 14 C concentration. Although calibration curves are constructed from independently dated archives, they invariably require revision as new data become available and our understanding of the Earth syste…
Confessions of a Serial Polygamist
Since 1993 Historic England (and its predecessor English Heritage) has commissioned 9074 radiocarbon ( 14 C) measurements on archaeological samples. Over 80% of these have been interpreted within formal Bayesian statistical models. The multiple strands of reinforcing evidence incorporated in these models provide precise chronologies that make stringent demands on the accuracy of the 14 C results included in the analysis. Inter-laboratory replicat…
Seeking the Holy Grail
The strengths of formal Bayesian chronological modelling are restated, combining as it does knowledge of the archaeology with the radiocarbon dating of carefully chosen samples of known taphonomy in association with diagnostic material culture. The risks of dating bone samples are reviewed, along with a brief history of the development of approaches to the radiocarbon dating of bone. In reply to Strien (2017), selected topics concerned with the e…
Opening the Woods
Environmental reconstructions from pollen records collected within archaeological landscapes have traditionally taken a broadly narrative approach, with few attempts made at hypothesis testing or formal assessment of uncertainty. This disjuncture between the traditional interpretive approach to palynological data and the requirement for detailed, locally specific reconstructions of the landscapes in which people lived has arguably hindered closer…
Island questions
What kind of history in prehistory
If we agree with the Annaliste historian Lucien Febvre (1973: 35) that “the concept of prehistory is one of the most ridiculous that can be imagined”, it still remains to be shown how alternative conceptions of the nature of archaeology can be figured, and to establish alternative approaches routinely in the discipline. This chapter argues that, armed with time of the middling sort, at timescales of human lifetimes and generations (Bayliss 2009; …
Seeking the Holy Grail
The strengths of formal Bayesian chronological modelling are restated, combining as it does knowledge of the archaeology with the radiocarbon dating of carefully chosen samples of known taphonomy in association with diagnostic material culture. The risks of dating bone samples are reviewed, along with a brief history of the development of approaches to the radiocarbon dating of bone. In reply to Strien (2017), selected topics concerned with the e…
Histories of deposition
The Late Bronze Age–Early Iron Age midden sites of Southern Britain are amongst the richest archaeological sites in the country. The organic accumulations contain substantial quantities of animal bone, decorated ceramics, metalwork and other objects; the often deep stratigraphy allows for changes in material culture and depositional practices, food production and consumption, and shifts in social identities, to be traced through time. The well-st…
When and Why? The Chronology and Context of Flint Mining at Grime’s Graves, Norfolk, England
New radiocarbon dating and chronological modelling have refined understanding of the character and circumstances of flint mining at Grime’s Graves through time. The deepest, most complex galleried shafts were worked probably from the third quarter of the 27th century cal bc and are amongst the earliest on the site. Their use ended in the decades around 2400 cal bc , although the use of simple, shallow pits in the west of the site continued for pe…
Anglo-Saxon Graves and Grave Goods of the 6th and 7th Centuries AD
IntCal09 and Marine09 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves, 0-50,000 Years cal BP
The IntCal04 and Marine04 radiocarbon calibration curves have been updated from 12 cal kBP (cal kBP is here defined as thousands of calibrated years before AD 1950), and extended to 50 cal kBP, utilizing newly available data sets that meet the IntCal Working Group criteria for pristine corals and other carbonates and for quantification of uncertainty in both the 14 C and calendar timescales as established in 2002. No change was made to the curves…
IntCal13 and Marine13 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves 0–50,000 Years cal BP
The IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon calibration curves have been revised utilizing newly available and updated data sets from 14 C measurements on tree rings, plant macrofossils, speleothems, corals, and foraminifera. The calibration curves were derived from the data using the random walk model (RWM) used to generate IntCal09 and Marine09, which has been revised to account for additional uncertainties and error structures. The new curves were r…
Intcal04 Terrestrial Radiocarbon Age Calibration, 0–26 Cal Kyr BP
A new calibration curve for the conversion of radiocarbon ages to calibrated (cal) ages has been constructed and internationally ratified to replace IntCal98, which extended from 0–24 cal kyr BP (Before Present, 0 cal BP = AD 1950). The new calibration data set for terrestrial samples extends from 0–26 cal kyr BP, but with much higher resolution beyond 11.4 cal kyr BP than IntCal98. Dendrochronologically-dated tree-ring samples cover the period f…
The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP)
Radiocarbon ( 14 C) ages cannot provide absolutely dated chronologies for archaeological or paleoenvironmental studies directly but must be converted to calendar age equivalents using a calibration curve compensating for fluctuations in atmospheric 14 C concentration. Although calibration curves are constructed from independently dated archives, they invariably require revision as new data become available and our understanding of the Earth syste…
SHCal20 Southern Hemisphere Calibration, 0–55,000 Years cal BP
Early researchers of radiocarbon levels in Southern Hemisphere tree rings identified a variable North-South hemispheric offset, necessitating construction of a separate radiocarbon calibration curve for the South. We present here SHCal20, a revised calibration curve from 0–55,000 cal BP, based upon SHCal13 and fortified by the addition of 14 new tree-ring data sets in the 2140–0, 3520–3453, 3608–3590 and 13,140–11,375 cal BP time intervals. We de…
Rolling Out Revolution
Sixty years ago, the advent of radiocarbon dating rewrote archaeological chronologies around the world. Forty years ago, the advent of calibration signaled the death knell of the diffusionism that had been the mainstay of archaeological thought for a century. Since then, the revolution has continued, as the extent of calibration has been extended ever further back and as the range of material that can be dated has been expanded. Now a new revolut…
Quality in Bayesian chronological models in archaeology
Bayesian chronological modelling is fast becoming the method of choice for the interpretation of radiocarbon dates in archaeological and palaeoenvironmental studies around the world. Although software enabling the routine application of the method has been available for more than twenty years, more than half of published models have appeared in the past fiveyears. Unfortunately, the pace of development in statistical methodology has not been matc…
Bradshaw and Bayes
The importance of chronology is reasserted as a means to achieving history and a sense of temporality. A range of current methods for estimating the dates and durations of archaeological processes and events are considered, including visual inspection of graphs and tables of calibrated dates and the summing of the probability distributions of calibrated dates. These approaches are found wanting. The Bayesian statistical framework is introduced, a…
Getting to the Bottom of It All
Assembling the Dead, Gathering the Living
The great site of Valencina de la Concepción, near Seville in the lower Guadalquivir valley of southwest Spain, is presented in the context of debate about the nature of Copper Age society in southern Iberia as a whole. Many aspects of the layout, use, character and development of Valencina remain unclear, just as there are major unresolved questions about the kind of society represented there and in southern Iberia, from the late fourth to the l…
Between the Vinča and Linearbandkeramik Worlds
Reliability of Nitrogen Content (%N) and Carbon
A recent study into prescreening techniques to identify bones suitable for radiocarbon dating from sites known for poor or variable preservation (Brock et al. 2007, 2010a) found that the percent nitrogen (%N) content of whole bone powder was the most reliable indicator of collagen preservation. Measurement of %N is rapid, requires little preparation or material, and is relatively cheap. The technique reduces the risk of needlessly sampling valuab…
The potential significance of dietary offsets for the interpretation of radiocarbon dates
The Cultural Project
Starting from questions about the nature of cultural diversity, this paper examines the pace and tempo of change and the relative importance of continuity and discontinuity. To unravel the cultural project of the past, we apply chronological modelling of radiocarbon dates within a Bayesian statistical framework, to interrogate the Neolithic cultural sequence in Lower Alsace, in the upper Rhine valley, in broad terms from the later sixth to the en…
Selection and Treatment of Data for Radiocarbon Calibration
High-quality data from appropriate archives are needed for the continuing improvement of radiocarbon calibration curves. We discuss here the basic assumptions behind 14 C dating that necessitate calibration and the relative strengths and weaknesses of archives from which calibration data are obtained. We also highlight the procedures, problems, and uncertainties involved in determining atmospheric and surface ocean 14 C/ 12 C in these archives, i…
A Vinča potscape
Recent work at Vinča-Belo Brdo has combined a total of more than 200 radiocarbon dates with an array of other information to construct much more precise narratives for the structural history of the site and the cultural materials recovered from it. In this paper, we present the results of a recent attempt to construct formal models for the chronology of the wider Vinča potscape, so that we can place our now detailed understanding of changes at Be…
Bayesian Buildings
Bayesian statistics provide a powerful tool which can combine different types of information about a problem. In archaeology over the past decade they have become routinely applied for estimating chronologies, where relative dating information from stratigraphy is available to complement series of scientific dates (Bayliss and Bronk Ramsey 2004). Over the past few years, the first steps have been taken to apply these powerful techniques to the da…
Building for the Dead
Our final paper in this series reasserts the importance of sequence. Stressing that long barrows, long cairns and associated structures do not appear to have begun before the thirty-eighth century cal. bc in southern Britain, we give estimates for the relative order of construction and use of the five monuments analysed in this programme. The active histories of monuments appear often to be short, and the numbers in use at any one time may have b…
Fragmenting times
The end of the affair
House time
The settlement of Racot 18 in the western Polish lowlands is used as a case study in the investigation of continued development and expansion following initial Neolithic beginnings, and in the formal chronological modeling, in a Bayesian framework, of settlement development. The site belongs to the Late Lengyel Culture of the later 5th millennium cal b.c., and represents the intake of new land following earlier initial colonization. The formally …
Talking About My Generation
Thirty-one radiocarbon results are now available from the West Kennet long barrow, and are presented within an interpretive Bayesian statistical framework. Two alternative archaeological interpretations of the sequence are given, each with a separate Bayesian model. In our preferred interpretation, the barrow is seen as a unitary construction (given the lack of dating samples from the old ground surface, ditches or constructional features themsel…
Two probable cases of treponemal disease of Medieval date from England
Two British Medieval skeletons are described. Paleopathological examination suggests that treponemal disease was present in each case. Radiocarbon dating indicates that one is firmly pre‐Columbian, and the other of likely pre‐Columbian date. The implications for our understanding of the history and geographic spread of the treponemal diseases, particularly venereal syphilis, are discussed. Am J Phys Anthropol 120:133–143, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss,…
To Cut a Long Story Short
In the context of unanswered questions about the nature and development of the Late Neolithic in Orkney, we present a summary of research up to 2015 on the major site at the Ness of Brodgar, Mainland Orkney, concentrating on the impressive buildings. Finding sufficient samples for radiocarbon dating was a considerable challenge. There are indications, from both features and finds, of activity pre-dating the main set of buildings exposed so far by…
Validating and Improving Archaeological Phasing at St. Mary Spital, London
This paper outlines the radiocarbon program applied to the excavation and skeletal assemblage from the cemetery of the medieval Priory and Hospital of St. Mary Spital in London. Problems encountered in dating medieval cemeteries are outlined. The problems were addressed through the application of Bayesian modeling to validate and refine conventional approaches to constructing phases of archaeological activity. It should be noted that this project…
Early Anglian Catterick and Catraeth
The evidence from scattered excavations undertaken over several decades in Catterick is brought together and assessed. The evidence of both settlement and burial indicates activity in the early Anglian period. Indications of status and ethnicity are discussed, and set within their historical context
The ‘Kilnsea-boat’, and some implications from the discovery of England's oldest plank boat remains
A single plank with integral cleats, recently discovered on the East Riding of Yorkshire coast at Kilnsea, has been identified as a fragment of a Bronze Age plank boat, and dated to 1870–1670 BC. This makes the ‘Kilnsea-boat’ England's oldest dated plank built boat
Iron Age inhumation burials at Yarnton, Oxfordshire
Radiocarbon dating of unaccompanied skeletons discovered during the excavation of an Iron Age, Roman and Saxon settlement at Yarnton, Oxfordshire, unexpectedly revealed the presence of a middle Iron Age cemetery (3rd or 4th century cal BC). British Iron Age burials before the 1st century BC are usually found as individuals, often in pits on settlement sites, or are repersented by disarticulated human bone. This paper explores whether cemeteries w…
New AMS radiocarbon dates for the North Ferriby boats—a contribution to dating prehistoric seafaring in northwestern Europe
A new series of radiocarbon measurements on three sewn-plank boats from North Ferriby, Yorkshire, has provided consistent new dating for these craft, which suggests that the appearance of such boats may fall in the early Bronze Age
The potential significance of dietary offsets for the interpretation of radiocarbon dates
The Survey and Excavation of a Bronze Age Timber Circle at Holme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, 1998–9
In 1998 a circle of timber posts within the intertidal zone on the north Norfolk coast was brought to the attention of the Norfolk County Council Archaeological Service. A subsequent programme of archaeological recording and dating revealed that the structure was constructed in the spring or early summer of 2049 BC, during the Early Bronze Age. Because of the perceived threat of damage and erosion from the sea a rescue excavation was undertaken d…
Two probable cases of treponemal disease of Medieval date from England
Two British Medieval skeletons are described. Paleopathological examination suggests that treponemal disease was present in each case. Radiocarbon dating indicates that one is firmly pre‐Columbian, and the other of likely pre‐Columbian date. The implications for our understanding of the history and geographic spread of the treponemal diseases, particularly venereal syphilis, are discussed. Am J Phys Anthropol 120:133–143, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss,…
Intcal04 Terrestrial Radiocarbon Age Calibration, 0–26 Cal Kyr BP
A new calibration curve for the conversion of radiocarbon ages to calibrated (cal) ages has been constructed and internationally ratified to replace IntCal98, which extended from 0–24 cal kyr BP (Before Present, 0 cal BP = AD 1950). The new calibration data set for terrestrial samples extends from 0–26 cal kyr BP, but with much higher resolution beyond 11.4 cal kyr BP than IntCal98. Dendrochronologically-dated tree-ring samples cover the period f…
A Puzzling Body from the River Thames in London
Radiocarbon measurements on a partially articulated female human skeleton, recovered from the foreshore of the river Thames in London, raised interesting questions of interpretation when the body did not produce the anticipated Neolithic date. A relatively recent 14 C age and a strong marine component to the individual's diet, identified by stable isotope measurements, means that the date of death is difficult to estimate accurately, although the…
Interpreting Radiocarbon Dates Using Evidence from Tree Rings
Often it is not possible to date a sample of wood from the final growth ring of the tree from which it came. In these cases, an “old-wood offset” is apparent. A number of quantitative approaches for the assessment of this offset are available, dependent on the actual tree rings that have been dated. A range of examples are given, demonstrating how such radiocarbon measurements can be interpreted using additional information from archaeology and d…
New Scientific Dating of the Later Bronze Age Wells at Swalecliffe, Kent
The Swalecliffe later Bronze Age well complex was reported in detail in volume 83 of the Antiquaries Journal. The site comprised seventeen wells cut into the base of a previously reduced hollow. Groundwater could thus have been more readily accessed within the subsequently cut well pits. The depth of the base of the wells, at up to 2.5m below ground level, and their consequent waterlogged nature, allowed exceptional preservation of wooden linings…
Ironworking in the Bronze Age? Evidence from a 10th Century BC Settlement at Hartshill Copse, Upper Bucklebury, West Berkshire
Excavations at Hartshill Copse in 2003 uncovered evidence for Late Bronze Age settlement, securely dated to the 10th century BC , associated with long alignments of closely set posts: prehistoric landscape features with few known parallels. Extensive sampling of the settlement remains yielded quantities of burnt flint and plain Post Deverel-Rimbury potsherds, and, quite unexpectedly, a substantial quantity of iron hammerscale. This paper presents…
Rev Thomas Bayes
The principles of the Bayesian approach for modelling chronologies has been outlined in Bayliss (this volume). This \npaper applies these methods to a ‘real world’ problem of dating a phase of construction where the potential for treering dating is limited. The accuracy and precision that these new techniques can deliver is demonstrated. Bayesian \nmodelling of radiocarbon dates and tree-ring dating independently estimate construction of the nort…
Bayesian Buildings
Bayesian statistics provide a powerful tool which can combine different types of information about a problem. In archaeology over the past decade they have become routinely applied for estimating chronologies, where relative dating information from stratigraphy is available to complement series of scientific dates (Bayliss and Bronk Ramsey 2004). Over the past few years, the first steps have been taken to apply these powerful techniques to the da…
The Antler Maceheads Dating Project
This paper reports the first examples of direct radiocarbon measurements from antler maceheads, demonstrating that both the middle Thames specimens and those from northern Britain date to the second half of the 4th millennium cal BC. This suggests a degree of contemporaneity between riverine activity in the south and ‘prestige’ burial in the north, although the possibility that this is a function of the radiocarbon calibration curve cannot be dis…
Conference Participants
From the 19th International Radiocarbon Conference held in Keble College, Oxford, England, April 3-7, 2006
Validating and Improving Archaeological Phasing at St. Mary Spital, London
This paper outlines the radiocarbon program applied to the excavation and skeletal assemblage from the cemetery of the medieval Priory and Hospital of St. Mary Spital in London. Problems encountered in dating medieval cemeteries are outlined. The problems were addressed through the application of Bayesian modeling to validate and refine conventional approaches to constructing phases of archaeological activity. It should be noted that this project…
Talking About My Generation
Thirty-one radiocarbon results are now available from the West Kennet long barrow, and are presented within an interpretive Bayesian statistical framework. Two alternative archaeological interpretations of the sequence are given, each with a separate Bayesian model. In our preferred interpretation, the barrow is seen as a unitary construction (given the lack of dating samples from the old ground surface, ditches or constructional features themsel…
Serious Mortality
Twenty-seven radiocarbon results are now available from the Fussell's Lodge long barrow, and are presented within an interpretive Bayesian statistical framework. Three alternative archaeological interpretations of the sequence are given, each with a separate Bayesian model. It is hard to decide between these, though we prefer the third. In the first (following the excavator), the construction is a unitary one, and the human remains included are b…
The Times of Their Lives
In preparing for the publication of the seven papers in the special supplement of Cambridge Archaeological Journal, we were concerned to find an outlet that could find a worldwide audience, as we believe that these papers have more than regional or period significance. That is a big claim. The case studies presented in the supplement are all of early Neolithic long barrows and long cairns of the fourth millennium cal. bc in southern England. Why …
Once in a Lifetime
Twenty-three radiocarbon results are now available from the Wayland's Smithy long barrow, and are presented within an interpretive Bayesian statistical framework. Four alternative archaeological interpretations of the sequence are considered, each with a separate Bayesian model, though only two are presented in detail. The differences are based on different readings of the sequence of Wayland's Smithy II. In our preferred interpretation of the se…
Building for the Dead
Our final paper in this series reasserts the importance of sequence. Stressing that long barrows, long cairns and associated structures do not appear to have begun before the thirty-eighth century cal. bc in southern Britain, we give estimates for the relative order of construction and use of the five monuments analysed in this programme. The active histories of monuments appear often to be short, and the numbers in use at any one time may have b…
Bradshaw and Bayes
The importance of chronology is reasserted as a means to achieving history and a sense of temporality. A range of current methods for estimating the dates and durations of archaeological processes and events are considered, including visual inspection of graphs and tables of calibrated dates and the summing of the probability distributions of calibrated dates. These approaches are found wanting. The Bayesian statistical framework is introduced, a…
A Short Passage of Time
Forty-four radiocarbon results are now available from the Hazleton North long cairn, and are presented within an interpretive Bayesian statistical framework. Three alternative archaeological interpretations of the sequence are given, each with a separate Bayesian model. In our preferred model the cairn is considered to be a unitary construction, following on from the pre-cairn midden and other activity after a short interval during which the site…
One Thing After Another
Forty-four radiocarbon results are now available from the Ascott-under-Wychwood long barrow, and are presented within an interpretive Bayesian statistical framework. Three alternative archaeological interpretations of the sequence are given, each with a separate Bayesian model. In our preferred model, pre-barrow occupation including small timber structures and a midden was followed by a gap long enough to allow a turfline to form. Cists and the p…
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (84 works) · Archaeology (75 works) · Geography (61 works) · Radiocarbon dating (61 works) · History (52 works) · Geology (35 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (34 works) · History (27 works) · Chronology (22 works) · Ancient history (19 works)