Seren Griffiths (Cardiff University)

Archaeologists are often adept at exploring landscapes through GIS, however, outside the scientific dating community, less attention has been paid to ways of presenting archaeological time. The use of routine chronometric dating programs presents a number of issues in the construction of site and regional chronologies. This paper explores the ontological implications statistical software packages, such as OxCal v4.0, pose for archaeological interpretations of change, transition, and causality, with reference to the British mesolithic-neolithic transition. Crucially, it demonstrates that achronological approaches to archaeological sites and processes disenfranchises past presents; not to engaging with chronological models represents a significant interpretive bias.