The Usefulness of Dendrochronology to Archaeology
Dendrochronology is a technique that has been in use for most of the twentieth century. Essentially the process revolves around tree rings. In a moderate environment, trees grow by one ring each year and thus, to an extent, by examining these ring sequences, it is possible to understand the conditions in which the tree grew, year by year. The resultant pattern is then comparable with patterns from other trees found in similar areas, growing under similar circumstances; types of ring can then be assigned to specific years. As well as their importance for studying climatic and environmental development, these tree ring patterns, ( the culmination of which are called chronologies ), are particularly useful to archaeologists. By tracing the patterns from living trees back through time, it is possible to compare samples of wood that have been recovered from ancient structures with our established chronologies, and match the sequence of the rings, thus revealing the age of the sample. This is known as cross dating. In the 20's and 30's the archaeologist, Douglass used these techniques effectively, and was one of the first to do so. At Pueblo Bonito, in New Mexico he established, for the first time, absolute dates for forty-five different monuments. He also used the technique to study the effects of a significant drought that occurred from1276 -- 1299 ( as well as several others ). He was also able to look at the implications of the use of dead wood, and the re-using of other timbers.
Over the last twenty years more than six thousand years of chronologies, covering as far back as 7500 B.C. have been developed for the Balkans, the Aegean and the Near East. Ideally there will eve...
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...niques, as I mentioned, such as radiocarbon dating. Obviously, the more analytical techniques there are applied to a sample, the greater the accuracy of the results will be. Although this is the case though, on its own dendrochronology is still invaluable to archaeologists. Kuniholm explains:
"Dendrochronology is the only archaeometric technique where determination of absolute dates accurate to the year is either theoretically or practically possible"
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Before Civilization Colin Renfrew
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Article: "Dendrochronology" Peter Ian Kuniholm
American Journal of Archaeology
Article: "Dendrochronology" Peter Ian Kuniholm
Cornell University release, Dendrochronology, July 2, 1996
Dendrochronology Seminar B.C. McCarthy, Ohio University
Renfrew, Colin. The Emergence of Civilisation: The Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium B.C. London: Metheun 1972.
...Clague, John J., Luckman, Brian H., Wiles, Gregory C. “Tree-Ring Dating of the Nineteenth-Century Advance of Brady Glacier and the Evolution of Two Ice- Marginal Lakes, Alaska.” The Holocene 21.4 (2001): 641-649. Sage Journals. Web. 9. Feb. 2014.
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While the carbon 14 method provided approximate dates for the stone rings it was no use
Toni Hurley, Philippa Medcalf, Christine Murray, Jan Rolph ~ HSC Course Third Edition Antiquity 2 Interpreting The Past, Published in 2008, pages 414-443.
The wooden lintels, writing, and the unique calendar reveal clues about life in a society that thrived for over 1000 years. Many massive building are visible today, those built to pay tribute to kings and to please the deities. The M...
The Iliad alone would never have been a reliable source without archaeological evidence to verify the actuality of a Trojan war. Therefore archaeologists have been working on the site known as hissarlik since the 1800’s to uncover truths about the myth. Frank Calv...
Howe, Helen, and Robert T. Howe. A World History: Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Volume 1. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1992. 533.
Hause, S., & Maltby, W. (2001). The Ancient Near East: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Phoenicia and Israel. Essentials of Western Civilization (pp.7-15). California: Wadsworth.
...l between 40,000 and 80,000 years old Anthropologists date modern human fossils from the same area at between 92,000 and
The Paleolithic Age was the earliest period of man. This time period dates back to 15,000 BCE. There are many artifacts from the Paleolithic Age including Lucy (female hominid), Otzi (ice man), and cave art.
Dendrochronology - can be defined as “the science that uses tree rings dated to their exact year of formation to analyze temporal and spatial patterns of processes in the physical and cultural sciences.”
McKay, J/P/, Hill, B.D., Buckler, J., Ebrey, P.B., Beck, R.B., Crowston, C.H., & Wiesner-Hanks, M.E. (2008). A History of World Societies, Volume A: From Antiquity to 1500. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martin's
Radiocarbon dating is used to tell how old something is. When some normal carbon gets hit by the rays of the sun it turns into carbon 14. Plants absorb this radioactive carbon in the form of carbon dioxide. Animals receive this carbon from eating the plants. When the organism is dead it loses the carbon 14. Scientists can tell how old something is based on the amount of carbon 14 in a dead object. Carbon dating is accurate if the amount of carbon 14 in the atmosphere has remained the same throughout time. The second is if carbon 14 has always decayed at the same
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