Alexandra Bayliss is a British

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and academic. She is Head of Scientific Dating at Historic England. Her research focuses on the construction of exact chronologies of European Neolithic archaeological sites, through the application of Bayesian

statistical modelling A statistical model is a mathematical model that embodies a set of statistical assumptions concerning the generation of sample data (and similar data from a larger population). A statistical model represents, often in considerably idealized form, ...

radiocarbon dates Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

. Partnered with

Alasdair Whittle Alasdair William Richardson Whittle, (born 7 May 1949) is a British archaeologist and academic, specialising in Neolithic Europe. He was Distinguished Research Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University from 1997 to 2018. Whittle was born o ...

from

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

, Bayliss has conducted extensive research on causewayed and related enclosures in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The results of that study, a book co-authored by Bayliss, Whittle and Frances Healey,

, titled ''Gathering Time: dating the early Neolithic Enclosures of Southern Britain and Ireland'' was named the

British Archaeological Awards The Council for British Archaeology (CBA) is an educational charity established in 1944 in the UK. It works to involve people in archaeology and to promote the appreciation and care of the historic environment for the benefit of present and futu ...

book of the year in 2012. From 2012 to 2017, Bayliss and Whittle led a project funded by the

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

(ERC). The project named "The Times of Their Lives" was a series of studies in precise chronologies and their implications, across several regions and phases of

Neolithic Europe The European Neolithic is the period when Neolithic (New Stone Age) technology was present in Europe, roughly between 7000 BCE (the approximate time of the first farming societies in Greece) and c.2000–1700 BCE (the beginning of the Bronze Age ...

. Bayliss has conducted research on additional historic sites in the United Kingdom, Europe and Turkey, using the same methodology of statistical modelling of radiocarbon dates.

Education

Bayliss obtained a BA (Honours) and a PhD at University College London.

Archaeological career

Since 2000, Bayliss and Whittle have collaborated on a number of research projects pertaining to the chronology of archaeological sites. Their initial study examined early Neolithic long barrows in Southern England. Additional studies focused on causewayed enclosures in the UK and Ireland. Starting in 2012 and continuing until 2017, Bayliss and Whittle led a series of studies funded by the European Research Council. The project, named ''The Times of their Lives: Towards precise narratives of change in the European Neolithic through formal chronological modelling'', consisted of a number of investigative studies using Bayesian chronological modelling of archeological sites across Europe, from the 6th to the 3rd century BC. Case studies were conducted in Spain, Malta, France, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Scotland and England. One of the studies undertaken as part of the''Times of Their Lives'' project, was an investigation into the development of Neolithic settlements in

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

, Scotland. The findings of the study, co-authored with Professor Colin Richards of the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute, and published in ''Antiquity'' journal, challenge the previously determined timeline for prehistoric life on Orkney. Bayliss is currently working on a long-term research project at a Neolithic settlement in Çatalhöyük, Turkey. The study, led by Professor Ian Hodder, from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, is funded by a grant from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and the US National Science Foundation. Bayliss's work involves investigating the structures and spaces uncovered by the archaeological site's 1960s excavations and compiling a detailed, multi-generation chronology of the site. In a study recently conducted by Historic England at the prehistoric site of Avebury, Bayliss's research revealed that two prehistoric timber circles are 800 years older than previously thought. The wooden structures, 20 miles north of

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...

, extend over 4 km (2.5 miles) and were built with more than 4,000 trees. Applying current radiocarbon dating techniques to charcoal samples. Bayliss was able to determine that the wooden circles were built in 3300 BC, instead of the 2500BC as estimated earlier.

Selected publications

* * * * *

Awards and honours

*2015 Shanghai Archaeological Forum Research Award ''The Times of Their Lives: High-resolution Radiocarbon-based Chronological Analysis of the European Neolithic, through Formal Modelling '' *2014 Current Archaeology, ''Archaeologist of the Year'', Nominee *2012 British Archaeological Awards, Book of the Year, ''Gathering Time: Dating the Early Neolithic Enclosures of Southern Britain and Ireland''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayliss, Alex British women archaeologists Alumni of University College London Year of birth missing (living people) Living people European Research Council grantees