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Points in Time: The M esolithic–Neolithic Transition and the Chronology of Late Rod Microliths in B ritain
Author(s) -
Griffiths Seren
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
oxford journal of archaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1468-0092
pISSN - 0262-5253
DOI - 10.1111/ojoa.12035
Subject(s) - chronology , radiocarbon dating , archaeology , geography , history , ancient history
Summary This paper presents the results of the Bayesian statistical modelling of radiocarbon dates associated with diagnostic late M esolithic rod microliths from England and Wales. These date estimates are compared with results for the earliest evidence for Neolithic material culture and practices in B ritain (Whittle et al. 2011; Griffiths 2011; 2014; forthcoming). The chronology of some rod microlith sites indicates a potential overlap between the earliest Neolithic and latest M esolithic material culture and practices, in the first three centuries of the fourth millennium cal BC across England and Wales. The locations of late M esolithic sites suggest regional processes of ‘neolithization’ may have occurred. In the region where we have the best chronological evidence for late M esolithic sites – in Y orkshire – the location of the very latest M esolithic sites suggests these lifeways may have persisted in landscapes which had been foci of hunter‐gatherer activity for hundreds of years, and which might have been understood as ‘ancestral’ or ‘persistent’ places.