Alex Bayliss facts for kids

Alexandra Bayliss is a British archaeologist and professor. An archaeologist is someone who studies human history by digging up old things. Dr. Bayliss works at Historic England, where she leads the team that figures out the exact ages of ancient objects and places. She also teaches about archaeology at the University of Stirling in Scotland.

Dr. Bayliss is well-known for her research on creating very precise timelines for ancient sites, especially from the European Neolithic period. The Neolithic period was a time when people started farming and living in settled communities. She uses a special math method called Bayesian statistical modelling with radiocarbon dates to find out how old things are. Radiocarbon dating is a scientific way to tell the age of ancient materials.

She worked with Alasdair Whittle from Cardiff University on an important project. They studied ancient circular areas called causewayed enclosures in the United Kingdom and Ireland. These were large, often circular, areas enclosed by ditches and banks, used by early farming communities. Their book about this research, Gathering Time, won the British Archaeological Awards book of the year in 2012.

From 2012 to 2017, Dr. Bayliss and Dr. Whittle led a big project called "The Times of Their Lives." This project used their special dating methods to learn more about how life changed in different parts of Europe during the Neolithic age.

Education

Dr. Bayliss studied at University College London. She earned both her first degree (BA Honours) and her PhD there.

Archaeological Career

Since 2000, Dr. Bayliss and Dr. Whittle have worked together on many research projects. These projects focus on figuring out the exact age of archaeological sites. Their first study looked at early Neolithic long barrows (ancient burial mounds) in Southern England. Later, they focused on the causewayed enclosures in the UK and Ireland.

From 2012 to 2017, Dr. Bayliss and Dr. Whittle led the "Times of Their Lives" project. This project was funded by the European Research Council. It involved many studies using Bayesian chronological modelling to date archaeological sites across Europe. They looked at sites from the 6th to the 3rd century BC. They studied places in Spain, Malta, France, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Scotland, and England.

One part of the "Times of Their Lives" project looked into how Neolithic settlements grew in Orkney, Scotland. Dr. Bayliss and Professor Colin Richards found new information that changed what people thought about the timeline of prehistoric life in Orkney. Their findings were published in the Antiquity journal.

Dr. Bayliss is also working on a long-term research project at a Neolithic settlement called Çatalhöyük in Turkey. This study is led by Professor Ian Hodder from Stanford University. Dr. Bayliss's work there involves studying the ancient buildings and spaces found during digs in the 1960s. She is creating a detailed timeline of the site that covers many generations.

Recently, Dr. Bayliss's research at the prehistoric site of Avebury in England made an exciting discovery. She found that two ancient wooden circles there are 800 years older than people first thought. These wooden structures are about 20 miles north of Stonehenge. They stretch over 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) and were built using more than 4,000 trees. By using modern radiocarbon dating on charcoal samples, Dr. Bayliss found that the wooden circles were built around 3300 BC, not 2500 BC as previously believed.

Awards and Honours

• 2015 Shanghai Archaeological Forum Research Award for "The Times of Their Lives" project.
• 2014 Nominee for Archaeologist of the Year by Current Archaeology magazine.
• 2012 British Archaeological Awards, Book of the Year, for Gathering Time: Dating the Early Neolithic Enclosures of Southern Britain and Ireland.

See also

In Spanish: Alex Bayliss para niños