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.
Cases eligible for tree-ring dating generally fall into one or more of these five categories:
Please contact the team if you are unsure whether your case is eligible or not.
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.
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.
This volume presents a detailed catalogue of the radiocarbon dates funded by English Heritage between April 2010 and March 2015.
This volume presents a detailed catalogue of the radiocarbon dates funded by English Heritage between April 2006 and March 2010.
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.
A detailed catalogue of 1100 radiocarbon determinations funded by English Heritage between 2003 and 2006.
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.
A detailed catalogue of 1195 radiocarbon determinations funded by English Heritage between 1998 and 2003.
A detailed catalogue of the radiocarbon dates funded by English Heritage between 1993 and 1998
A detailed catalogue of the radiocarbon dates funded by English Heritage between April 1988 and March 1993.
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.
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 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.
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
Summarises dendrochronological investigation of timbers of a wreck identified as the London, located underwater in the Thames Estuary off Southend.
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.
Samples were taken from 21 of the various timber elements of the mill, results included evidence of a previously unknown rebuilding phase.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Results show all the sampled timbers are late 15th century; whereas the expected dating based on stylistic and documentary grounds was 16th century.
24 of the 99 sampled timbers from the large multi-phase building have now been dated by ring-width dendrochronology and radiocarbon wiggle-matching.
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.
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
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.
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 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 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 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.
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