Alex Bayliss

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Understanding the resilience of early societies to climate change is an essential part of exploring the environmental sensitivity of human populations. There is significant interest in the role of abrupt climate events as a driver of early Holocene human activity, but there are very few well-dated records directly compared with local climate archives. Here, we present evidence from the internationally important Mesolithic site of Star Carr showing occupation during the early Holocene, which is directly compared with a high-resolution palaeoclimate record from neighbouring lake beds. We show that—once established—there was intensive human activity at the site for several hundred years when the community was subject to multiple, severe, abrupt climate events that impacted air temperatures, the landscape and the ecosystem of the region. However, these results show that occupation and activity at the site persisted regardless of the environmental stresses experienced by this society. The Star Carr population displayed a high level of resilience to climate change, suggesting that postglacial populations were not necessarily held hostage to the flickering switch of climate change. Instead, we show that local, intrinsic changes in the wetland environment were more significant in determining human activity than the large-scale abrupt early Holocene climate events.

There is a considerable mix of models for house durations in the literature on Neolithic Europe. This article presents a summary of a formal chronological model for the Neolithic tell of Uivar in western Romania. We provide estimates of house duration and relate houses to other features of the development of this tell, from the later sixth to the mid-fifth millennium cal BC. Three wider implications are discussed: that the house must be contextualized case by case; that house duration gives powerful insights into the sociality of community; and that houses, surprisingly often taken rather for granted in Neolithic archaeology, should be fully integrated into the interpretation of Neolithic histories. From what perspective , anthropocentric or relational, that may best be done, is open to question; while it may be helpful to think in this case in terms of the lives and vitality of houses, the ability of people to create and vary history should not be set aside lightly.

– Recent work at Vinca-Belo Brdo has combined a total of more than 200 radiocarbon dates with an array of other information to construct much more precise narratives for the structural history of the site and the cultural materials recovered from it. In this paper, we present the results of a recent attempt to construct formal models for the chronology of the wider Vinca potscape, so that we can place our now detailed understanding of changes at Belo Brdo within their contemporary contexts. We present our methodology for assessing the potential of the existing corpus of more than 600 radiocarbon dates for refining the chronology of the five phases of Vinca ceramics proposed by Milojcic across their spatial ranges, including a total of 490 of them in a series of Bayesian chronological models. Then we outline our main results for the development of Vinca pottery. Finally, we discuss some of the major implications for our understanding of the source, character and tempo of material change.

Recent work at Vinča-Belo Brdo has combined a total of more than 200 radiocarbon
dates with an array of other information to construct much more precise narratives for the structural history of the site and the cultural materials recovered from it. In this paper, we present the results of a recent attempt to construct formal models for the chronology of the wider Vinča potscape, so that we can place our now detailed understanding of changes at Belo Brdo within their contemporary contexts. We present our methodology for assessing the potential of the existing corpus of
more than 600 radiocarbon dates for refining the chronology of the five phases of Vinča ceramics proposed by Milojčić across their spatial ranges, including a total of 490 of them in a series of Bayesian chronological models. Then we outline our main results for the development of Vinča pottery. Finally, we discuss some of the major implications for our understanding of the source, character and tempo of material change.

Perhaps nowhere in European prehistory does the idea of clearly-defined cultural boundaries remain more current than in the initial Neolithic, where the southeast–north-west trend of the spread of farming crosses what is perceived as a sharp divide between the Balkans and central Europe. This corresponds to a distinction between the Vinča culture package, named for a classic site in Serbia, with its characteristic pottery assemblage and absence of longhouses, and the Linearbandkeramik (LBK), with equally diagnostic but different pottery, and its apparently culturally-diagnostic longhouses, extending in a more northerly belt through central Europe westward to the Dutch coast. In this paper we question the concept of such a clear division through a presentation of new data from the site of Szederkény-Kukorica-d} ul} o. A large settlement in southeast Transdanubia, Hungary, excavated in advance of road construction, Szederkény is notable for its combination of

Resumen: Se presenta un estudio de la cronología del tholos de Montelirio a partir de 22 fechas radiocarbónicas y su modelado formal mediante estadística bayesiana. Después de considerar minuciosamente los problemas y limitaciones asociados a cada una de las dataciones disponibles se proponen dos modelos cronológicos alternativos en relación con la temporalidad de este gran monumento megalítico. Los resultados sugieren que Montelirio fue construido en algún momento entre finales del siglo 29 y finales del siglo 28 cal ANE y que la actividad funeraria en su interior pudo ocurrir bien como resultado de un evento único o como pro-ducto de varios eventos relativamente próximos en el tiempo (separados por varias décadas como mucho). La discusión de estos resultados incluye referencias a los resultados de un amplio estudio de la cronología radiocarbónica de Valencina actualmente en prensa (García Sanjuán et al., En Prensa), en términos de la temporalidad de este gran asentamiento calcolítico y la posición de Montelirio en la misma. Abstract: We present a study of the Montelirio tholos chronology based on 22 radiocarbon dates and their formal modelling through Bayesian statistics. After careful consideration of the limitations and problems inherent to each of the available 14 C dates, two alternative models of the temporality of this great megalithic monument are presented. The results suggest that Montelirio was built some time between the end of the 29 th and the end of the 28 th centuries cal BC, and that burial activity inside it may have taken place either as a result of a single event or as the product of various events in close temporal proximity (perhaps through a few decades). The discussion of these results includes references to the results of an extensive study of the chronology of Valencina de la Concepción, currently in press (García Sanjuán et al., In Press) in terms of the temporality of this large Copper Age settlement and the position of Montelirio in it.

Bayesian statistical frameworks have been used to calculate explicit, quantified estimates for site chronologies, and have been especially useful for resolving the complex probability distributions of calibrated radiocarbon dates to the level of individual prehistoric lifetimes and generations. Here the technique is applied to the Neolithic tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo in order to answer long-standing questions about the timing and circumstances of its demise. Modelled date estimates place the end of the site in the second half of the forty-sixth century cal BC. Two successive horizons of closely spaced houses each suffered extensive burning; the interval between them was placed at a maximum of 25 years, with the last house probably used for less than 15 years. The evidence suggests that these house burnings were deliberate, and opens new considerations for the causes of the end of the tell-based system in south-east Europe.

Résumé/Abstract Excavations at Hartshill Copse in 2003 uncovered evidence for Late Bronze Age settlement, securely dated to the 10th century BC, associated with long alignments of closely set posts: prehistoric landscape features with few known parallels. ...

ABSTRACT Surveys and excavations in 1980–1 confirmed Peak Camp as a Neolithic enclosure on a flat promontory of the Cotswold escarpment overlooking the Severn Valley just 1 km south of Crickley Hill. Although heavily eroded by quarrying the site can be reconstructed as having two concentric arcs of boundary earthworks forming an oval plan which was probably open to the north where a steep natural slope defined the edge of the site. A section through the outer boundary showed four main phases of ditch construction, at least one causewayed. An extensive series of radiocarbon dates shows construction began in the late 37th century cal bc and probably continued through successive remodellings into the 33rd century cal bc or beyond. An internal ditch or elongated pit situated in the area between the inner and outer boundary earthworks had a similar history. Where sampled, the ditch and internal feature were rich in material culture, including a substantial assemblage of plain bowl pottery; flint implements and working waste; animal remains dominated by cattle but including also the remains of a cat; human foot bones; slight traces of cereal production; a fragment of a Group VI axe; part of a sandstone disc; and a highly unusual shale arc pendant of continental type. It is suggested that the ditch fills represent selectively redeposited midden material from within the site that started to accumulate in the late 5th or early 4th millennium cal bc. The construction and use of Peak Camp is contemporary with activity on Crickley Hill, and the two sites probably formed components of a single complex. Its use was also contemporary with the deposition of burials at local long barrows in the Cotswold-Severn tradition which are linked by common ceramic traditions and the selective deposition of human body parts.

Forty-four radiocarbon results are now available from the Hazleton North long cairn, and are presented within an interpretive Bayesian statistical framework. Three alternative ar-chaeological interpretations of the sequence are given, each with a separate Bayesian model. In our ...

A formally modeled radiocarbon chronology for a new profile through the great Neolithic tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo, Serbia, is the third interwoven strand in refining the chronology of the tell. This now joins models for the whole sequence based on the archive of early excavations, and for the last two known horizons at the top of the settlement mound, investigated in recent decades. In the new deep sounding, Vinča culture occupation from the 52nd century cal BC is slightly later than in the main sequence, probably reflecting the horizontal extension of the tell as it began to grow. The last dated occupation falls in the late 47th–early 46th century cal BC, slightly earlier than in the main sequence, but the top of the profile is affected by the slippage that caused the new excavations. Formal estimates are given for the succession and varying durations of burnt and unburnt houses, and indicate a period in the first part of the 5th millennium without house burning. Overall, the combined results from the three interwoven strands serve to produce a radically enhanced understanding of the temporality of the tell, which builds on, rather than supplants, previous research. We knew previously that Vinča-Belo Brdo was very long-lived, but now we can time that history with much greater precision. We can assert with much greater confidence that its vertical buildup was steady and largely uninterrupted. We have begun, from the work on the top of the tell and in the new deep sounding, to grasp better the fluctuations in house durations from generation to generation, and can now contrast the relative fortunes of unburnt and burnt houses. We can say much more about the timing and tempo of the ending of the tell, and about the possible circumstances in which that took place.

Perhaps nowhere in European prehistory does the idea of clearly-defined cultural boundaries remain more current than in the initial Neolithic, where the southeast–northwest trend of the spread of farming crosses what is perceived as a sharp divide between the Balkans and central Europe. This corresponds to a distinction between the Vinča culture package, named for a classic site in Serbia, with its characteristic pottery assemblage and absence of longhouses, and the Linearbandkeramik (LBK), with equally diagnostic but different pottery, and its apparently culturally-diagnostic longhouses, extending in a more northerly belt through central Europe westward to the Dutch coast. In this paper we question the concept of such a clear division through a presentation of new data from the site of Szederkény-Kukorica-dűlő. A large settlement in southeast Transdanubia, Hungary, excavated in advance of road construction, Szederkény is notable for its combination of pottery styles, variously including Vinča A, Ražište and LBK, and longhouses of a kind otherwise familiar from the LBK world. Formal modelling of its date establishes that the site probably began in the later 54th century cal BC, lasting until the first decades of the 52nd century cal BC. Occupation, featuring longhouses, pits and graves, probably began at the same time in the eastern and western parts of the settlement, starting a decade or two later in the central part; the western part was probably the last to be abandoned. Vinča pottery is predominantly associated with the eastern and central parts of the site, and Ražište pottery with the west. Formal modelling of the early history of longhouses in the LBK world suggests their emergence in the Formative LBK of Transdanubia c. 5500 cal BC followed by rapid dispersal in the middle of the 54th century cal BC, associated with the ‘earliest’ (älteste) LBK. The adoption of longhouses at Szederkény thus appears to come a few generations after the start of this ‘diaspora’. Rather than explaining the mixture of things, practices and perhaps people at Szederkény with reference to problematic notions such as hybridity, we propose instead a more fluid and varied vocabulary, encompassing combination and amalgamation, relationships and performance in the flow of social life, and networks; this makes greater allowance for diversity and interleaving in a context of rapid change.

The Neolithic settlement of Alsónyék reached its greatest extent during the Late Neolithic Lengyel period. Nearly 9000 features, including postholes associated with 122 houses, pits and pit complexes, and c. 2300 burials, could be assigned to it. The traces of Lengyel settlement and burials were found over the entire excavated area, with an estimated
extent of some 80 ha.
The burials uncovered mostly form part of groups of graves, actually being small cemeteries within the various parts of the settlement. Apart from the grave groups, several solitary or scattered graves were also found. Other large Lengyel burial grounds or large Lengyel settlements with numerous burials are known in Transdanubia, but the enormous number of graves at Alsónyék is unprecedented within the Lengyel cultural complex as a whole, and provides exciting opportunities for varied archaeological and bioarchaeological investigations.
The discovery of 122 surface-level, timber-framed houses at a single site is also unique for the area and the Lengyel period as a whole. These buildings help to build a better understanding of the architecture and lifestyle of the Lengyel population, which is a fairly new strand in the settlement archaeology of the Lengyel culture in Hungary and beyond. This and the sheer size of the site make Alsónyék exceptionally significant.
Altogether 217 radiocarbon results are presented for the Lengyel phase. For the purpose of analysis subsites 5603, 11 and 10B have been modelled separately. The modelled estimates are precise enough that it is possible to estimate robustly the timing of activity across the site. The modelling suggests that burial activity in subsite 5603 probably began in 4790–4740 cal BC (68% probability) and that it began at a similar time, 4795–4745 cal BC (68% probability), in subsite 11. An intensive period of burial began slightly later, in 4715–4690 cal BC (68% probability), on subsite 10B. At this time settlement was established across a wide area, in subsite 11 from 4745–4690 cal BC (68% probability), on subsite 5603 from 4745–4665 cal BC (68% probability), and on subsite 10B from 4720–4700 cal BC (68% probability).
After a brief episode of intense occupation, lasting at most a few decades, settlement and then burial ended on the northernmost subsite 10B, in the 4700s or 4690s cal BC (68% probability) and 4695–4670 cal BC (68% probability) respectively. Settlement also ended before burial on subsite 11, but endured for much longer. The settlement here ended in
4670–4620 cal BC (37% probability) or 4610–4565 cal BC (31% probability) and burial in 4585–4515 cal BC (68% probability). Both settlement and burial endured longest on subsite 5603, although here the end of burial preceded the end of settlement by well over a century. Burial ended here in 4515–4465 cal BC (68% probability), and settlement ended in 4345–4245 cal BC (68% probability).

Imprecise chronology has entailed a fuzzy kind of prehistory. Prehistorians should no longer be content with timeframes that employ successive units of 200 years or more duration, or with slow change over the long term as their dominant chronological and interpretative perspective. The means to get away from very generalised accounts of the past is formal chronological modelling in a Bayesian framework. The Bayesian approach in general is outlined, with emphasis on its interpretive and iterative nature. The approach combines calibrated radiocarbon dates with knowledge of the archaeological contexts from which they are derived to produce a series of formal, probabilistic date estimates. Stringent demands are made of both the radiocarbon dates and our archaeological understanding of stratigraphy, associations, sample taphonomy and context in general. The Bayesian process at Alsónyék involved assessment of existing dates, careful definition of aims and objectives, the construction of a rigorous sampling strategy, with an explicit hierarchy of suitable samples, precise understanding of the contexts from which samples are derived, and simulation to achieve cost-effective use of resources. The principal material dated at Alsónyék was human and animal bone. Potential age offsets from non-vegetarian diets are carefully considered; ‘perfect pairs’ of human and animal bone samples from the same contexts indicate that human bone samples are not subject to wide-scale freshwater reservoir effects. Dietary inputs are estimated formally using a series of Bayesian mixing models.The sequence of iterative sampling submissions between 2012 and 2015 is described, and the procedures of the five laboratories involved are detailed. Procedures for model construction, validation and comparison are discussed. Finally, we consider how we can use precise timings to reveal the web of connections and successions that made up past lives, adding plot and context to a more precise chronicle to create narratives for peopling the past.

Drawing on the papers in this volume that precede it, our discussion brings all the chapters of the long story of Alsónyék into a single narrative, discussing in more interpretive terms notions of persistent place, community, aggregation and coalescence, with an eye on different scales of analysis and the broader tempo of change. We look especially at the remarkably long persistence of Alsónyék, the intensity of its occupation and the trajectory of population increase and decline at the site.
We begin by comparing general conditions of early village emergence with the specific evidence for the development of settlement and population in Transdanubia and beyond in central Europe, before summarising date estimates for the successive periods of occupation at Alsónyék itself, from Starčevo through LBK and Sopot to the Lengyel. We emphasise the long continuity of occupation except for the gap between Starčevo and LBK, the probable overlap between LBK and Sopot, and the acceleration of growth in the Lengyel period. The exceptional persistence of place seen at Alsónyék is examined in further detail, with comparison to elsewhere leading on to discussion of the sense of place and community that may have been experienced through the Alsónyék sequence. Characterisation of the Lengyel occupation as not only a major aggregation but also a coalescent community is explored; the causes of such developments elsewhere, as seen in the historical and ethnographic record, are noted, including periods of social instability and inter-community violence. The extraordinary intensity of activity at Alsónyék is further modelled in various ways to provide estimates of population and numbers of buildings in use through the Lengyel sequence. The peak of intense activity was probably only maintained for a generation or two around 4700 cal BC, and the decline of the Lengyel site was perhaps only slightly slower than its rise (covering two or three generations in the latter part of the 47th century cal BC). Activity did not reduce to its pre-Lengyel levels, however, but persisted for several more centuries at perhaps two or three times the intensity of any pre-Lengyel occupation.
A search for the causes of the Alsónyék aggregation — and of its decline — remains challenging, though answers may eventually be found in the further study of the regional settlement complex or the detailed history of disease. No extensive signs of violence have so far been recorded. We further discuss possible constituents of the coalescence represented at Alsónyék, noting the frequent houses and possible households and neighbourhoods, and looking beyond these to the idea of wards, clans and moieties. Possible clues to internal differences within the site are noted for future research, and it is only with further work that the full Alsónyék story can be told.

Vorgestellt wird der Versuch einer präziseren Datierung des Erdwerks von Heilbronn-Klingenberg “Schlossberg” am mittleren Neckar. Die angewendete Methode empfiehlt sich als Ausgangspunkt für weitere Untersuchungen zur Datierung und Belegungsdauer anderer Michelsberger Erdwerke des späten 5. bis frühen 4. Jahrtausends calBC. Vom Erdwerk von Klingenberg wurden in den Jahren 1986–1987 zwei Abschnittsgräben ausgegraben, die einen Lößsporn abriegeln, Spuren einer Palisade innerhalb des inneren Grabens, in beiden Gräben Reste einer verbrannten Holzkonstruktion, zahlreiche Gruben innerhalb wie auch außerhalb der Gräben, und in diesen Befunden zahlreiche Deponierungen von Hunden. Wenige Spuren einer vor-grabenzeitlichen Belegung datieren nach MK II und MK III/IV, doch fanden die Aktivitäten am Platz hauptsächlich während MK V/Munzingen statt. Der chronologische Ansatz kombiniert die detaillierte archäologische Befundinformation mit 14C-Datierungen aus sorgfältig ausgewählten Proben – verwendet wurden ganz überwiegend verkohltes Getreide, und Tierknochen, die anpassend oder einem Teilskelett zuweisbar sind – mit dem statistischen Filter nach dem Satz von Th. Bayes..

Starting from questions about the nature of cultural diversity, this paper examines the pace and tempo of change and the relative importance of continuityand discontinuity. To unravel the cultural project of the past, we apply chronological modelling of radiocarbon dates within a Bayesian statistical framework, to interrogate the
Neolithic cultural sequence in Lower Alsace, in the upper Rhine valley, in broad terms from the later sixth to the end of the fifth millennium cal BC. Detailed formal estimates are provided for the long succession of cultural groups, from the early Neolithic Linear Pottery culture (LBK) to the Bischheim Occidental du Rhin Supérieur (BORS) groups at the end of the Middle Neolithic, using seriation and typology of pottery as the starting point in modelling. The rate of ceramic change, as well as frequent shifts in the nature, location and density of settlements, are documented in detail, down to lifetime and generational timescales. This reveals a Neolithic world in Lower Alsace busy with comings and goings, tinkerings and adjustments, and relocations and realignments. A
significant hiatus is identified between the end of the LBK and the start of the Hinkelstein group, in the early part of the fifth millennium cal BC. On the basis of modelling of existing dates for other parts of the Rhineland, this appears to be a wider phenomenon, and possible explanations are discussed; full reoccupation of the landscape is only seen in the Grossgartach phase. Radical shifts are also proposed at the end of the Middle Neolithic

Resumen: Se presenta un estudio de la cronología del tholos de Montelirio a partir de 22 fechas radiocarbónicas y su modelado formal mediante estadística bayesiana. Después de considerar minuciosamente los problemas y limitaciones asociados a cada una de las dataciones disponibles se proponen dos modelos cronológicos alternativos en relación con la temporalidad de este gran monumento megalítico. Los resultados sugieren que Montelirio fue construido en algún momento entre finales del siglo 29 y finales del siglo 28 cal ANE y que la actividad funeraria en su interior pudo ocurrir bien como resultado de un evento único o como pro-ducto de varios eventos relativamente próximos en el tiempo (separados por varias décadas como mucho). La discusión de estos resultados incluye referencias a los resultados de un amplio estudio de la cronología radiocarbónica de Valencina actualmente en prensa (García Sanjuán et al., En Prensa), en términos de la temporalidad de este gran asentamiento calcolítico y la posición de Montelirio en la misma. Abstract: We present a study of the Montelirio tholos chronology based on 22 radiocarbon dates and their formal modelling through Bayesian statistics. After careful consideration of the limitations and problems inherent to each of the available 14 C dates, two alternative models of the temporality of this great megalithic monument are presented. The results suggest that Montelirio was built some time between the end of the 29 th and the end of the 28 th centuries cal BC, and that burial activity inside it may have taken place either as a result of a single event or as the product of various events in close temporal proximity (perhaps through a few decades). The discussion of these results includes references to the results of an extensive study of the chronology of Valencina de la Concepción, currently in press (García Sanjuán et al., In Press) in terms of the temporality of this large Copper Age settlement and the position of Montelirio in it.

Résumé/Abstract Des études archéologiques, financées par des promoteurs, sur l'île de Sheppey, se sont conclues par la découverte de deux enclos néolithiques à chaussée empierrée sur le même sommet de colline et très proches l'un de l'autre (env. 300 m). A l' ...

Most of a human skeleton excavated at Stonehenge in 1923, believed destroyed in the London bombing of 1941, was re-located in 1999. New study of the bones shows them to represent a man of Anglo-Saxon era (not Neolithic or Roman as previously suggested) aged 28-32, ...

The Early Anglo-Saxon Period is characterized archaeologically by the regular deposition of artefacts in human graves in England. The scope for dating these objects and graves has long been studied, but it has typically proved easier to identify and enumerate the chronological problems of the material than to solve them. Prior to the work of the project reported on here, therefore, there was no comprehensive chronological framework for Early Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, and the level of detail and precision in dates that could be suggested was low. The evidence has now been studied afresh using a co-ordinated suite of dating techniques, both traditional and new: a review and revision of artefact-typology; seriation of grave-assemblages using correspondence analysis; high-precision radiocarbon dating of selected bone samples; and Bayesian modelling using the results of all of these. These were focussed primarily on the later part of the Early Anglo-Saxon Period, starting in the 6th century. This research has produced a new chronological framework, consisting of sequences of phases that are separate for male and female burials but nevertheless mutually consistent and coordinated. These will allow archaeologists to assign grave-assemblages and a wide range of individual artefact-types to defined phases that are associated with calendrical date-ranges whose limits are expressed to a specific degree of probability. Important unresolved issues include a precise adjustment for dietary effects on radiocarbon dates from human skeletal material. Nonetheless the results of this project suggest the cessation of regular burial with grave goods in Anglo-Saxon England two decades or even more before the end of the seventh century. That creates a limited but important discrepancy with the current numismatic chronology of early English sceattas. The wider implications of the results for key topics in Anglo-Saxon archaeology and social, economic and religious history are discussed to conclude the report.

Alasdair Whittle Cardiff School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University, Humanities Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU, Wales. Alistair Barclay Wessex Archaeology, Portway House, Old Sarum Park, Salisbury, SP4 6EB, UK. Alex Bayliss English Heritage, 1, ...

To the east of the main excavated area at Alsónyék, a small investigation took place which revealed a Sopot culture occupation, represented by pits, four ditches and 18 graves with the remains of 20 individuals. Some time-depth to the occupation is seen in the ditches cutting the pits, and some of the graves cutting the third ditch. The enclosed area was about five hectares, based on geomagnetic survey, but it is not possible to estimate the entire size of the occupation.
The Sopot culture is normally regarded as a horizon with a questionable chronological position on the boundary between the Middle and Late Neolithic in western Hungary. Its role in the formation of the large-scale Lengyel complex remains controversial. Scholars can agree that it was brought to the region from the south, but there have been different views concerning the timing of its spread in the western Carpathian basin. Some have seen it as an entirely pre-Lengyel development, and others as at least partly contemporaneous with the early Lengyel culture.
Dating within the ERC-funded project, The Times of Their Lives, aimed to provide formally modelled estimates of the timing and duration of the Sopot occupation at Alsónyék, and in so doing also to contribute to better understanding of the context and development of the Sopot culture in Hungary. The paper presents 17 dates on human and animal bone (including five existing dates from burials), which are modelled in a Bayesian statistical framework. The model concentrates on the samples available from the burials, and its main element regards the burials as representing a continuous period of activity in this area of the Alsónyék complex. The model estimates that the Sopot burials probably began in
5095–5020 cal BC (68% probability), probably lasted for 220–340 years (68% probability), and probably ended in 4825–4750 cal BC (68% probability). The model also estimates a terminus ante quem for the digging of Ditch 211 of probably 4930–4870 cal BC (68%
probability).
These estimates help to inform debate about the relative sequence of cultural developments
in the region, and the relationship of Sopot communities to those of the LBK and
the Lengyel cultures. As Alsónyék is the largest currently known Sopot burial ground in
Hungary in eastern Transdanubia, this chronology is particularly valuable for modelling
cultural interactions along the Danube between the northern Balkans and the Carpathian
basin. The Sopot component also contributes significantly to the construction of a robust
chronology for the long sequence of occupations at Alsónyék.

We present a study of the Montelirio tholos chronology based on 22 radiocarbon dates and their formal modelling through Bayesian statistics. After careful consideration of the limitations and problems inherent to each of the available 14 C dates, two alternative models of the temporality of this great megalithic monument are presented. The results suggest that Montelirio was built some time between the end of the 29 th and the end of the 28 th centuries cal BC, and that burial activity inside it may have taken place either as a result of a single event or as the product of various events in close temporal proximity (perhaps through a few decades). The discussion of these results includes references to the results of an extensive study of the chronology of Valencina de la Concepción, currently in press (García Sanjuán et al., In Press) in terms of the temporality of this large Copper Age settlement and the position of Montelirio in it.

"The great site of Valencina de la Concepción-Castilleja de Guzmán, near Seville in the lower Guadalquivir valley of southwest Spain, is presented in the context of debate about the nature of Copper Age society in southern Iberia as a whole. Many aspects of the layout, use, character and development of Valencina remain unclear, just as there are major unresolved questions about the kind of society represented there and in southern Iberia, from the late fourth to the late third millennium cal BC. This paper discusses 178 radiocarbon dates, from 17 excavated sectors within the c. 450 ha site, making it the best dated in later Iberian prehistory as a whole. Dates are modelled in a Bayesian statistical framework. The resulting formal date estimates provide the basis for both a new epistemological approach to the site and a much more detailed narrative of its development than previously available. Beginning in the 32nd century cal BC, a long-lasting tradition of simple, mainly collective and often successive burial was established at the site. Mud-vaulted tholoi appear to belong to the 29th or 28th centuries cal BC; large stone-vaulted tholoi such as La Pastora appear to date later in the sequence. There is plenty of evidence for a wide range of other activity, but no clear sign of permanent, large-scale residence or public buildings or spaces. Results in general support a model of increasingly competitive but ultimately unstable social relations, through various phases of emergence, social competition, display and hierarchisation, and eventual decline, over a period of c. 900 years."