Explore our research reports with this map which is an on-going project that allows access to the majority of research reports produced for place-based projects. It covers most types of non-invasive surveys, including scientific analysis, such as tree ring dating and archaeobotany.
Scientific Dating
The Scientific Dating Team oversee scientific dating as part of projects funded through the Heritage Protection Commissions Programme.
We conduct research and commission radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, and other forms of scientific dating such as archaeomagnetic and luminescence dating. We provide Historic England and others with a comprehensive range of advice on the practical application of scientific dating.
Scientific dating includes a range of biological and physical methods for assessing the time when things happened in the past. The best known and most often used techniques are radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating. On this page you can find out about the Scientific Dating Team and the work we fund.
Dendrochronology
Cases eligible for tree-ring dating generally fall into one or more of these five categories:
- Part of projects funded under the National Heritage Protection Plan (2010-2015) and the Historic England Action Plan
- In receipt of grant-aid for repairs
- On the Historic England at Risk register
- The subject of a statutory decision in which Historic England is involved (eg thematic or responsive designation, Listed Building Consent application, public enquiry)
- An English Heritage guardianship property
Please contact the team if you are unsure whether your case is eligible or not.
Radiocarbon dating
We provide radiocarbon dating services as a grant in-kind to projects funded by Heritage Protection Commissions, and also in support of other projects and cases funded by Historic England.
Radiocarbon date lists
Historic England, formerly English Heritage, produce catalogues of radiocarbon dates for the projects we fund. These provide full technical details of all the radiocarbon dates funded during period covered by each volume.
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Radiocarbon DatesPublished 15 March 2008
This volume holds a datelist of 647 radiocarbon determinations carried out between 2004 and 2007 in support of research funded by English Heritage through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund.
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Radiocarbon DatesPublished 15 December 2020
A detailed catalogue of 1100 radiocarbon determinations funded by English Heritage between 2003 and 2006.
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Radiocarbon DatesPublished 15 December 2007
This volume holds a datelist of 476 radiocarbon determinations carried out between 2002 and 2004 in support of research funded by English Heritage through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund.
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Radiocarbon DatesPublished 15 February 2017
A detailed catalogue of 1195 radiocarbon determinations funded by English Heritage between 1998 and 2003.
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Radiocarbon DatesPublished 15 December 2015
A detailed catalogue of the radiocarbon dates funded by English Heritage between 1993 and 1998
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Radiocarbon DatesPublished 15 May 2013
A detailed catalogue of the radiocarbon dates funded by English Heritage between April 1988 and March 1993.
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Radiocarbon DatesPublished 15 May 2012
This volume holds a datelist of 1285 radiocarbon determinations carried out between 1981 and 1988 on behalf of the Ancient Monuments Laboratory of English Heritage.
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Radiocarbon DatesPublished 3 January 1994
This volume holds a datelist of radiocarbon determinations carried out between 1970 and 1982 on behalf of the Ancient Monuments Laboratory, now part of English Heritage.
Radiocarbon dating and chronological modelling
Radiocarbon Dating and Chronological Modelling provides guidelines for good practice and gives practical advice on the application of these methods within archaeological projects. It should be used in conjunction with advice given by radiocarbon laboratories and modelling specialists on specific projects.
Recent scientific dating reports
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The Shambles, 6 Market Street, North Walsham, Norfolk: Tree-ring Dating of Oak Timbers.
Tree-ring analysis of timbers from two roofs, a first-floor ceiling, and an ex situ cellar joist, resulting in the successful dating of 29 samples
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The London, Thames Estuary, London: Tree-ring Analysis of Ship Timbers
Summarises dendrochronological investigation of timbers of a wreck identified as the London, located underwater in the Thames Estuary off Southend.
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158 Watling Street East, Towcester, Northamptonshire: Tree-ring Dating of Oak Timbers
Timbers from the roofs and floors of the L-shaped building on the front of this property were sampled. Results were later than the expected date.
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Bourn Mill, Caxton End, Cambridgeshire: Ring-Width Dendrochronology, Radiocarbon Wiggle-Matching, and Oxygen Isotope Analysis of Elm and Oak Timbers
Samples were taken from 21 of the various timber elements of the mill, results included evidence of a previously unknown rebuilding phase.
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Deal Castle, Victoria Street, Deal, Kent: Radiocarbon Wiggle-Matching of Oak Timbers
Showed that the main ceiling beams of the Central Tower forming the ground-floor ceiling are all original, while its consoles are early 17th century.
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Southall Manor House, The Green, Southall, Ealing, London: Radiocarbon Wiggle-Matching of Oak Timbers
Results showed a significant amount of timber felled in the first half of the 17th century, at odds with the expected late-16th century-date.
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Kibworth Harcourt Mill, Langton Road, Leicestershire: Ring-Width Dendrochronology and Radiocarbon Wiggle-Matching of Additional Timbers
An original set of samples taken in 2004 were re-assessed, and an additional 21 timbers were sampled, along with one measured by digital photography.
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Abbots Staith Buildings, Water Lane, Selby, North Yorkshire: Tree-ring Analysis of Timbers
Results suggest building works at the south wing in the last decades of the 16th century, building works occurred in the central wing a century later.
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The Maison Dieu Museum, 17 Ospringe Street, Faversham, Kent: Radiocarbon Wiggle-Matching of Oak Timbers
Results show all the sampled timbers are late 15th century; whereas the expected dating based on stylistic and documentary grounds was 16th century.
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Headstone Manor, Pinner View, Harrow, London: Radiocarbon Wiggle-Matching of Oak Timbers
24 of the 99 sampled timbers from the large multi-phase building have now been dated by ring-width dendrochronology and radiocarbon wiggle-matching.
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Trerithick, Polyphant, Altarnun, Cornwall: Radiocarbon Wiggle-Matching of Oak Timbers
The chronology is from AD 1557 to 1726; the roofs of the extant hall range and west range were replaced in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
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Church of St John the Baptist, Myndtown, Shropshire: Tree-Ring Analysis of Oak Timbers Incorporating a Survey of the Roofs
Analysis of samples from timbers representing two phases of roofs within the nave and the chancel, from the bell-cote and from the nave wall.
You can search geographically for scientific dating reports using the research reports map
Who we are
Alex Bayliss
Head of Scientific Dating at Historic England
Alex leads on all scientific dating activity for Historic England including development of corporate policy and national standards. She specialises in constructing precise chronologies for archaeological sites and finds through the statistical modelling of radiocarbon dates.
She has recently completed a major study of early Anglo-Saxon burials, which has significantly changed our view of how Christianity was established in England. Her previous research has transformed our understanding of how farming arrived in Britain. (Gathering Time: dating the early Neolithic Enclosures of Southern Britain and Ireland with Alasdair Whittle and Frances Healy was voted book of the year, British Archaeological Awards 2012).
She is currently working on a major project funded by the European Research Council, The Times of Their Lives, which was awarded a Research Award of the Shanghai Archaeological Forum in 2015. Alex's publications can be obtained through her ResearchGate profile.
Peter Marshall
Scientific Dating Coordinator
Peter Marshall works in Historic England’s Research Department as part of the Scientific Dating Team, coordinating the programme of commissioned radiocarbon dating. He has been involved in many iconic archaeological projects over the last twenty years providing precise chronologies to understand past human activities and how landscapes have changed. His work on the chronology of Stonehenge won the 2013 Ben Cullen Award and he is presently part of the Times of Their Lives project. Details of Peter's publications can be found on his profile at at Scholar Google.
Shahina Farid
Scientific Dating Coordinator
Shahina Farid co-ordinates the commissioned dendrochronology programme in the Scientific Dating Team. She is relatively new to the team having joined in 2012 after a career as a contract archaeologist working for many of the commercial London based units as well as research projects abroad.
Over the two decades as Field Director and Project Coordinator at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey she has accumulated a comprehensive grounding in all aspects of archaeological excavation, recording and interpretation including a comprehensive overview of archaeological sciences, which she brings to the job. She is currently Honorary Secretary for the British Institute at Ankara.
Cathy Tyers
Dendrochronologist
Cathy is part of the Scientific Dating team and has been a dendrochronologist (tree-ring dating) since 1984. She oversees all dendrochronological work commissioned through Historic England either as part of projects funded through the Heritage Protection Programme or the Historic England Action Plan, as well as sites where Historic England is involved in statutory decisions or the provision of advice and support. Cathy provides advice to a wide range of external enquirers and is involved in the development of national standards. Her research interests include imported conifer timbers in post-medieval buildings, medieval farmhouses in the south-west, and past landscapes and woodland management.
Alex Bayliss
Head of Scientific Dating-
Email
[email protected]
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Address
4th Floor, Cannon Bridge House,
25 Dowgate Hill,
London,
EC4R 2YA
Shahina Farid
Scientific Dating Coordinator-
Email
[email protected]
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Address
4th Floor, Cannon Bridge House,
25 Dowgate Hill,
London,
EC4R 2YA
