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. It contains supporting information about the samples and the sites producing them, a comprehensive bibliography, and two indexes for reference and analysis. An introduction provides discussion of the character and taphonomy of the dated samples and information about the methods used for the analyses reported and their calibration.

The datelist has been collated from information provided by the submitters of the samples and the dating laboratories. Many of the sites and projects from which dates have been obtained are published, although, when many of these measurements were produced, high-precision calibration was not possible. At this time, there was also only a limited range of statistical techniques available for the analysis of radiocarbon dates. Methodological developments since these measurements were made may allow revised archaeological interpretations to be constructed on the basis of these dates, and so the purpose of this volume is to provide easy access to the raw scientific and contextual data which may be used in further research.