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Stepping stones to the Neolithic? Radiocarbon dating the Early Neolithic on islands within the ‘western seaways’ of Britain

Stepping stones to the Neolithic? Radiocarbon dating the Early Neolithic on islands within the ‘western seaways’ of Britain
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 BC. The western seaways have not, however, been considered in detail within any of the recent studies addressing the radiocarbon chronology of the Earliest Neolithic in that wider region. This paper presents a synthesis of all existing 5th and 4th millennia cal BC radiocarbon dates from islands within the western seaways, including 50 new results obtained specifically for this study. While the focus here is insular in a literal sense, the project’s results have far reaching implications for our understanding of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition across Britain and Ireland and beyond. The findings broadly fit well with Whittle et al.’s (2011) Gathering Time model, suggesting that the earliest dated Neolithic in this zone falls into the c. 3900-3700 cal BC bracket. However, it is also noted that our current chronological understanding is based on comparatively few dates spread across a large area. Consequently, it is suggested that both further targeted work and an approach that incorporates an element of typo-chronology (as well as absolute dating) is necessary if we are to move our understanding of the process of transition in this key region forwards.
0079-497X
97-135
Garrow, Duncan
516e3fea-51bf-4452-85f3-cd1bc0da68c6
Griffiths, Seren
fdec5dc5-11b7-44f1-8f9f-ad61b378e751
Anderson-Whymark, Hugo
0b96a86d-1eed-4358-9dcb-06554f6cf839
Sturt, Fraser
442e14e1-136f-4159-bd8e-b002bf6b95f6
Garrow, Duncan
516e3fea-51bf-4452-85f3-cd1bc0da68c6
Griffiths, Seren
fdec5dc5-11b7-44f1-8f9f-ad61b378e751
Anderson-Whymark, Hugo
0b96a86d-1eed-4358-9dcb-06554f6cf839
Sturt, Fraser
442e14e1-136f-4159-bd8e-b002bf6b95f6

Garrow, Duncan, Griffiths, Seren, Anderson-Whymark, Hugo and Sturt, Fraser (2017) Stepping stones to the Neolithic? Radiocarbon dating the Early Neolithic on islands within the ‘western seaways’ of Britain. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 83, 97-135. (doi:10.1017/ppr.2017.4).

Record type: Article

Abstract

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 BC. The western seaways have not, however, been considered in detail within any of the recent studies addressing the radiocarbon chronology of the Earliest Neolithic in that wider region. This paper presents a synthesis of all existing 5th and 4th millennia cal BC radiocarbon dates from islands within the western seaways, including 50 new results obtained specifically for this study. While the focus here is insular in a literal sense, the project’s results have far reaching implications for our understanding of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition across Britain and Ireland and beyond. The findings broadly fit well with Whittle et al.’s (2011) Gathering Time model, suggesting that the earliest dated Neolithic in this zone falls into the c. 3900-3700 cal BC bracket. However, it is also noted that our current chronological understanding is based on comparatively few dates spread across a large area. Consequently, it is suggested that both further targeted work and an approach that incorporates an element of typo-chronology (as well as absolute dating) is necessary if we are to move our understanding of the process of transition in this key region forwards.

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Accepted/In Press date: 11 November 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 19 September 2017
Published date: December 2017
Organisations: Archaeology

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 403466
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/403466
ISSN: 0079-497X
PURE UUID: b2894d17-04c3-4ce3-8b91-05430ea6e33d
ORCID for Fraser Sturt: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3010-990X

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Date deposited: 02 Dec 2016 09:25
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:49

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Contributors

Author: Duncan Garrow
Author: Seren Griffiths
Author: Hugo Anderson-Whymark
Author: Fraser Sturt ORCID iD

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