13,000 years ago, most of the Northern hemisphere froze for centuries during the Younger Dryas (10,900 - 9,700 BCE).

This was a very different world than ours– the waters of today's English Channel and North Sea were locked in massive glaciers, and much of today's UK was uninhabitable.

New methodologies leverage radiocarbon data through advanced probability modeling.

These techniques can illuminate the migration, growth, and expansion patterns of ancient populations by gathering large volumes of radiocarbon sample data and analyzing the frequency of individual radiocarbon dates.

Drag the red circle to sweep through the time series. Each step represents 5 years.

Playback controls offer automatic sequencing. Changing the speed control increases the step interval: time passes faster, but at the cost of decreased detail!

Combine playback and manual manipulation to explore the data.

Many sites contain more than one artifact. Symbols are semi-transparent: brighter circles indicate more higher-probability samples in one area.

The controls on the right side change symbol color according to the sample's associated archaeological culture. Not all samples are associated with a culture.

Archaeological cultures describe common elements found in the material remains of ancient population groups. While cultures can be distinctive, these labels can also obscure underlying processes of change within groups, as well as important differences between them.

This tool is designed for data exploration.

Every aspect of these analyses are controversial: while radiocarbon probabilities may offer insight into population growth trends, data availability is severely constrained.

Every user should carefully interrogate these data, and cross-reference against other sources (Ancient DNA, the material record, etc.) whenever possible.

Time Range: Start to 500 AD
Timestamps: 2100
Artifacts: 1,873
Archaelogical Sites: 62