The Times of Their Lives (ToTL) project led by Alasdair Whittle of Cardiff University and Alex Bayliss of Historic England, funded by ERC, and in which Wessex Archaeology is collaborating has won a global award at the Shanghai Archaeology Forum (SAF). These awards are presented biennially and recognise the World’s major discoveries and research, in particular projects that promote excellence, innovation and collaboration. The ToTL project was one of 11 winners from a short list of 93 projects.
The ToTL project is involved in a major re-think of the European Neolithic through the application of Bayesian statistics to radiocarbon dating. The goal is to produce much finer timescales that equate to lifetimes and generations. It has many strands in a dozen countries that include the redating of settlements in Late Neolithic Orkney, megaliths in the Paris Basin, rock cut tombs in Malta, and long houses and tells in Eastern Europe. One element that Wessex Archaeology has been involved in is the redating of the great Neolithic tell (settlement mound) of Vinča-Belo Brdo adjacent to the Danube and just south of Belgrade, Serbia. Made up of eight metres of occupation deposits that span the later sixth to the mid-fifth millennium cal BC and has given its name to the Vinča culture. Further details can be found here.