Dendrochronological investigation on historical English oak (Quercus robur L.) in Lithuania and Latvia: problems and potential (original) (raw)
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Journal of Archaeological Science, 2009
We overview the recent development of oak dendrochronology in Europe related to archaeology and arthistory. Tree-ring series of European oaks (Quercus robur and Q. petraea) have provided a reliable framework for chronometric dating and reconstruction of past climate and environment. To date, long oak chronologies cover almost the entire Holocene, up to 8480 BC and the network over the entire area in which the two oaks grow is being improved. We present the main characteristics of oak ring series and discuss the latest methodological advances in defining the calendar year in which the tree-rings were formed and in interpreting such dating in terms of the age of a wooden object. Dendrochronology has established itself as a standard dating tool and has been applied in a wide variety of (pre-)historical studies. Archaeological wood, historical buildings, works of art (such as panel paintings and sculptures) have been successfully investigated. Recent advances in dendro-provenancing have helped to obtain more information on the timber trade in the past. Information on past forest structures, silviculture and timber use have become available through scrutinizing historical and contemporary ring-width patterns.
Baltic timber in Western Europe – an exciting dendrochronological question
Dendrochronologia, 2002
During the Middle Ages and early modern times timber became one of the most important commercial products. Vast quantities were transported from the ports of the Eastern Baltic Sea to Western Europe and used among other things as the panels for paintings. A growing number of very local master chronologies constructed in Poland for oak (Quercus spp.) increases the possibility to localize its origin. Using methods of so-called dendroprovenancing, timbers from Bialowieza Forest in Eastern Poland, for example, were detected in a Scottish castle. However, the question of Baltic timber in historic objects of Western Europe still remains an exiting challenge.
Medieval oak chronology from the Vilnius Lower Castle
Dendrochronologia, 2007
The paper describes the results of a dendrochronological investigation on historical oak (Quercus robur L.) timbers from the Vilnius Lower Castle excavations. In Lithuania, oak was used only in specific cases during the Middle Ages. Therefore, historical material for tree ring chronology building is lacking. However, the construction of a local oak chronology is of great importance as it can help to determine the provenance of many imported timbers that are part of wooden cultural heritage in Western Europe. Oak samples make 9.2% of the analysed timbers excavated in the Vilnius Lower Castle territory -the largest present-day collection of historical timbers in Lithuania. The main material for Vilnius oak chronology was obtained from the 'bridge foundation (BF)' construction found close to the Royal Palace gate at a depth of 4-5 m. Ring-width series of the oak beams of the 'BF', together with other excavated oak logs were cross-dated and a mean chronology of 217-year length was constructed. The chronology was dated to AD 1202-1418 against the Baltic reference chronologies BALTIC1 (t ¼ 7:57), BALTIC2 (t ¼ 4:52) and WINCHCOL (t ¼ 5:74) (authors J. Hilliam, I. Tyers, D. Mills). The average date of the hardwood -sapwood boundary on the 'bridge' samples that have partially preserved sapwood is between 1406 and 1407. As the average number of oak sapwood rings is considered to be 16, the most probable felling date of trees used for the 'BF' is situated around
2007
In this study I set out to describe and refine the method by which we determine the origin of ancient oak timber using dendrochronology. Many aspects needed to be discussed, from the point of view of developing a method to determine provenance<br> to a more local level than previously. The development of the method is initiated on the basis of tree-ring data from living trees, where a set of procedures and rules could be defined. However in the subsequent application of the method of determining the origin of the timber from ancient structures, consideration has to be taken of problems of the historical and/or archaeological context. A series of case studies is presented where the dendrochronological analysis of oak timber from shipwrecks and barrels found in an archaeological context are described, and an attempt is made to determine the origin of the timber. A varying level of detail is<br> applied in each case, depending of the number of samples that are analysed, and...
Vegetation history and …, 2006
Throughout the Middle Ages forests in Flanders (northern Belgium) experienced a dramatic human influence. Forests were logged for wood supply and converted to arable land. The structure of the remaining forests was altered. This, combined with the tempering influence of the Atlantic climate, results in conditions that are suboptimal for dendrochronological research. Tree-ring series of Quercus robur and Q. petraea of timber from medieval archaeological sites are often short, show abrupt growth-rate variations and are complacent. The question arises whether tree-ring series of this type are potential records of past management and whether they could constitute the basis of a reference chronology for archaeological dating. During six archaeological excavations in and around the medieval town of Ypres, cross-sections were collected. The tree-ring series could be dated back to the 12th-14th centuries, using reference chronologies from surrounding regions. The growth pattern of the short sequences displays a high similarity to tree-ring series from modern coppice. For the first time, it has been confirmed that dendrochronological analysis in Flanders is possible and can provide valuable information on medieval forest use and structure.
The dendrochronological signal of oak (Quercus spp.) in Poland
Dendrochronologia, 1991
1985. Redating the English art-historical tree-ring chronologies, Nature, 135: 317-319. BAILLIE M.G.L., PILCHER J.R., 1973. A simple crossdating program for tree-ring research, Tree-Ring Bull., 33: 7-14. BEDNARZ Z., 1976. Wplyw klimatu na zmiennosc szerokosci sloj6w rocznych limby (Pinus cembra L.) w Tatrach [The effect of climate on the variability in the width of growth rings in stone pine (Pinus cembra L.) in the Tatra Mountains],
Dendrochronologia, 2018
From 1997 to the present, a sustained project in the Maramureș region in Romania was completed with the construction of a 781-year oak tree-ring chronology. A total of 395 samples from living trees and 429 from archaeological wood were analysed with dendrochronological methods. The study aimed to provide the scientific community with a new oak chronology that could be applied in dendroarchaeology, dendroclimatology and dendroecology studies and also for interpreting past socioeconomic events. Furthermore, we studied the number of sapwood rings and the growth pattern for different time periods. The chronology covered the continuous period of A.D. 1236-2016. From the 824 samples collected, we separated 271 tree-ring series into a new chronology (A.D. 1406-2016), which fulfilled all the criteria necessary to reconstruct past climate and environmental changes. The resulting new tree-ring chronology indicated robust signal series intercorrelation (r = 0.55) and an average mean sensitivity of 0.21. Based on an analysis of the sapwood, we recommend estimating a number between 8 and 32 rings to the date of final ring for 95% confidence range of mean on the for felling in the Maramureș region. Additionally, we observed that the number of sapwood rings was not correlated with altitude or oak tree species.