Settlement Duration and Materiality: Formal Chronological Models for the Development of Barnhouse, a Grooved Ware Settlement in Orkney

To Cut a Long Story Short: Formal Chronological Modelling for the Late Neolithic Site of Ness of Brodgar, Orkney

“…Finally, the novel style of Grooved Ware, replacing an earlier ceramic tradition featuring the use of Unstan bowls and associated decorated and plain roundbased pottery, appeared in Orkney from at least the later thirty-second century cal BC at Barnhouse (Richards et al, 2016). Flat-based, bucket-like forms in a wide range of sizes, with varying incised and applied decoration, characterize the new ceramic assemblages.…”

“…Flat-based, bucket-like forms in a wide range of sizes, with varying incised and applied decoration, characterize the new ceramic assemblages. Some of those in Orkney have close similarities to others much further away in other parts of Britain (Wainwright & Longworth, 1971;MacSween et al, 2015;Richards et al, 2016). Whether the new style originated exclusively in Orkney, where the largest assemblages have been found so far, or in more widely dispersed social networks has again been the subject of debate (Sheridan, 2004;Thomas, 2010;Richards, 2013;Sheridan et al, in prep.).…”

Contemplating the history and future of radiocarbon dating in the American Southeast

“…Although this research has been mostly path-breaking, it stands in stark contrast to carefully coordinated European high-quality chronological projects that have carefully used Bayesian radiocarbon simulations (Bayliss et al 2007;Griffiths 2014;Kennett et al 2017;Steier and Rom 2000) and the iterative submission of several hundred to more than a thousand radiocarbon dates to carefully and critically model ancient histories at individual sites and regions. Projects such as "Gathering Time" (Whittle et al 2011), "Times of Their Lives" Czerniak et al 2016;Denaire et al 2017;Jakucs et al 2016;Oross et al 2016;Osztás et al 2016;Richards et al 2016;Tasić et al 2015Tasić et al , 2016, and others are providing the groundwork to trace Neolithic settlement histories and societal practices at regional and generational levels with extremely high accuracy and precision. While there has yet to be a chronology program undertaken in the Southeast (or other parts of North America) that rival these well-funded British-based projects, our hope is that continued publication and interest in smaller chronological modeling applications will eventually lead to larger-scale Bayesian applications that will address important multi-scalar questions of interest to the Southeastern Archaeology readership at a much higher level of resolution than ever before.…”

The end of the world, or just ‘goodbye to all that’? Contextualising the red deer heap from Links of Noltland, Westray, within late 3rd-millennium cal BC Orkney

“…To the west, a sizeable field system was uncovered, while in the south-west part of the Links (EASE Area 5) the excavators uncovered what they have described as 'a series of at least seven well-preserved dry stone buildings arranged in close proximity within a finely built stone-walled enclosure, linked by paved passageways and surrounded [and capped] by extensive and extremely rich midden deposits' (Moore & Wilson 2014); a Late Neolithic human skeleton was also found. One of the Area 5 structures (Structure 8, subsequently renamed Structure 10), a massive building some 22m across in its maximum extent (Moore & Wilson 2010a), closely resembles Structure 8 at Barnhouse (Richards 2005;Richards et al 2016) and Structure 10 at Ness of Brodgar (Towers et al 2015;Card et al 2017) in its size, shape and quality of construction. It was among the wallcollapse rubble within this building that the first (and most famous) of the Links of Noltland figurines was found (ie the so-called 'Westray wifie' or 'Westray Venus' (Moore & Wilson 2011a: illus 43)).…”

“…This deer heap and the remarkable condition of the remains have generated much discussion (eg Sharples 2000; Morris 2005;Richards et al 2015), and yet the deer themselves remained undated until 2015, when they became the subject of a radiocarbon dating programme undertaken as part of a much larger, European Research Council-funded research project, The Times of Their Lives (www.totl.eu). One of the constituent projects within this Europe-wide programme has focused on refining the chronology of developments in late 4th-and 3rd-millennium cal bc Orkney (MacSween et al 2015; Richards et al 2016;Card et al 2017;Bayliss et al 2017). Given the potential importance of the deer heap to our understanding of these developments, it was duly incorporated into the project.…”