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 4 December 2024
This volume presents a detailed catalogue of the radiocarbon dates funded by English Heritage between April 2010 and March 2015.
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Radiocarbon DatesPublished 1 May 2023
This volume presents a detailed catalogue of the radiocarbon dates funded by English Heritage between April 2006 and March 2010.
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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.
Research Reports Map
You can search geographically for scientific dating reports using the research reports map. This is an ongoing 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.
Who we are
Bisserka Gaydarska
Head of Scientific Dating at Historic England
Bisserka Gaydarska is currently the Head of the Scientific Dating Team. She oversees all activities related to scientific dating in Historic England.
She is a Bulgaria-born European prehistorian, working mostly in Eastern and Central Europe. Her inter-disciplinary studies combined archeological science or information technology with archaeology (such as the radiocarbon dating of key sites in Europe), the introduction of the relational approach to early urbanism and, most recently, the Bayesian modelling of AMS dates for British prehistoric sites, including brochs, while she was a post-doctoral research assistant for the “Project Radiocarbon' - Big Data, integrated cross-national heritage histories” at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Bisserka is currently a member of the Executive Board of the EAA (European Association of Archaeologists) and served as a co-chair of the AGE (Archaeology and Gender in Europe) EAA community between 2019 and 2022.
Bisserka's publications can be obtained through her ResearchGate profile.
Shahina Farid
Scientific Dating Coordinator
Shahina Farid joined Historic England’s Scientific Dating Team in 2012. She manages the commissioned dendrochronology programme and provides advice and assistance in enquiries about Scientific Dating techniques in archaeology.
Shahina is a British-trained field archaeologist with extensive experience working for London-based commercial units and digs abroad, where she has promoted British excavation methodologies.
She has an international reputation as a field director on research projects in Turkey, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, but is best known for her work as Field Director and Project Co-ordinator for the world-renowned Neolithic excavations at the Çatalhöyük Research Project in Turkey.
With a background heavily grounded in field excavation, Shahina’s perspective is firmly based on the rigour and accuracy of field archaeological methods and analysis of the resulting data, and a thorough understanding of archaeological sciences, which she brings to the job.
Shahina currently holds the offices of Honorary Secretary for the Society of Antiquaries of London, Trustee for Museum of London Archaeology, and Trustee for the British Institute at Ankara - having served two terms as Honorary Secretary and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.
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.
Emma Brownlee
Radiocarbon Dating Specialist
Emma Brownlee is a radiocarbon dating specialist with Historic England. She undertakes radiocarbon dating and Bayesian analysis for projects commissioned by Historic England, and provides advice to the sector.
Emma joined Historic England from a research position at Girton College, University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on early medieval European funerary practices, particularly their chronological development. She has extensive excavation experience, largely on sites of Roman to Medieval date, both in the UK and abroad.
Emma’s publications can be obtained through her ResearchGate profile.
Alison Arnold
Shahina Farid
Scientific Dating Coordinator-
Address
4th Floor, Cannon Bridge House,
25 Dowgate Hill,
London,
EC4R 2YA
Emma Brownlee
Radiocarbon Dating Specialist-
Address
Brooklands,
24 Brooklands Avenue,
Cambridge,
CB2 8BU
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