Recent radiocarbon dating of Wayland's Smithy was carried out alongside dating of other long barrows in southern England, as part of a ground-breaking project led by English Heritage in association with Cardiff University and University of Central Lancashire.
The project has revolutionised the way we think about the Neolithic, allowing us to write more precise and detailed histories of the distant past. Long-held views of the chronology of long barrows in England, and the duration of their use, have been overturned.
Radiocarbon dating has been available to archaeologists for more than 50 years, with high-precision calibration based on wood dated by dendrochronology available for the Neolithic period in England for the last 20 years. On its own, this method provides reliable yet broad ranges for the dates of individual samples, usually spanning 250 years or more. But when combined with Bayesian statistics, a method in which samples are studied and interpreted in their archaeological context (their appearance in different layers in the soil, for example), the span can be narrowed sometimes to within a few decades.
This technique has been used to re-assess the archaeological evidence from Wayland’s Smithy. More precise dating of the bones previously discovered there has revealed that the Neolithic Age was marked by more violence than traditionally imagined. It has dispelled the traditional view that the barrow was used over centuries. Instead, the use is now revealed to be short lived and intensive, probably for under a decade in the case of Wayland’s Smithy I. Such short timescales support the impression of small communities keeping alive memories of their immediate kin and people they know, rather than some tribal ancestors or past heroes.
Prehistorians until now have only been able to assign the people whom they study to imprecise times. As a result, prehistory is often seen as a timeless stretch in which nothing changes for long periods. With this research, we can now think about the Neolithic period in terms of individuals and communities and make useful and revealing comparisons between their choices and behaviour in the remote past.
The 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.
Disclaimer
The text and pictures on this page are derived from the 'Heritage Unlocked' series of guidebooks published in 2004. We intend to review, update and enhance the content in the near future as part of the Portico project, whose objective is to provide information on the history, significance, research background and sources for all English Heritage properties.
Source:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/waylands-smithy/history-and-research/radiocarbon-dating/
See the Bayesian dates here:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/content/imported-docs/p-t/image1.pdf
(PDF file)
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