West Kennet and other Long Barrows - only used for short period of time

Salon IFA 160 12th of March reported the following:


Precision dating transforms interpretation of Neolithic long barrows

Long-held views about the longevity of Neolithic long barrows are being challenged by a ground-breaking dating programme led by English Heritage in association with Cardiff University and the University of Central Lancashire. The end of the active use of barrows at Ascott-under-Wychwood, Hazleton, West Kennet and Fussell’s Lodge was previously thought to be separated by centuries. Using Bayesian statistics to analyse radiocarbon dates, archaeologists involved in the project have found that burial at all four ended within a decade or so of 3625 BC.

On their own, radiocarbon dates provide broad date ranges spanning 250 years or more. Bayesian statistics involves narrowing down the probability that the date range lies within a far shorter time period. Precise dating suggests that the use of long barrows was short-lived and intensive. Few barrows were used for more than three to four generations. Wayland’s Smithy was probably used for under a decade. Such short timescales support the impression of small communities keeping alive memories of their immediate kin and people they knew, rather than some tribal ancestors or past heroes.

The fact that each site was closed differently (at Fussell’s Lodge the wooden chamber was consumed by fire, at Ascott-under-Wychwood the entrances were blocked, at Hazleton burial ended, but people returned to place offerings in the passages while at West Kennet, burial simply stopped) and that the human remains were deposited in diverse ways, led to the belief that customs changed over time. The finding that all four are contemporary suggests that Neolithic culture was less homogeneous than previously thought.

Our Fellow Alasdair Whittle, Professor in the Cardiff School of History and Archaeology at Cardiff University, said: ‘Up to now prehistorians have tended to emphasise long-term change, in search of long-running or underlying processes at the expense of shorter-term events and succession. This dating programme will help direct the study of prehistory to get much closer to people.’

Alex Bayliss, radiocarbon dating expert at English Heritage, said: ‘Prehistory is often seen as a fuzzy period, a timeless stretch in which nothing changes for long periods. This dating programme demands a revolution in our thinking about prehistory—and not just that of early Neolithic burial monuments in southern Britain. Finally, we can now think about Neolithic history ─ ideas, events and people at specific times over 5,000 years ago.’

For example, precise dating of the bones from the fourteen people buried at Wayland’s Smithy in Oxfordshire suggests that at least three could have died together as a result of a massacre, and that the decade in which they died ─ between 3590 and 3560 BC ─ may have been one of increasing social tension and upheaval. Michael Wysocki, Senior Lecturer in Forensic and Investigative Science at the University of Central Lancashire, said: ‘We know one person was shot through the lower abdomen because we have found the tiny tip of a flint arrowhead embedded in their pelvic bone. We also know that the bodies of two people were scavenged and partially dismembered by dogs or wolves before their remains were buried in the monument.’

A number of talks on the significance of precise radiocarbon dating in understanding the Neolithic period will be given during National Science and Engineering Week 2007 (9─18 March), at the Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum on 13 March, at Reading Museum on 14 March, at the Avebury Study Centre on 16 March and at the Corinium Museum, Cirencester, on 17 March.


Keyword Archaeology

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