Dendrochronology

Strontium Isotope & Tree-Ring Signatures of Cedrus brevifolia in Cyprus

by Sara Rich

Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, themed issue: Archaeometry, 2012

Evaluation of Results from an Investigation of the Timber Casing of an Underground Cistern in Tepenec Castle

by Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica IANSA

Herold, H. 2008, ‘Der Schanzberg von Gars-Thunau in Niederösterreich – Eine befestigte Höhensiedlung mit Zentralortfunktion aus dem 9.–10. Jahrhundert’ (The Schanzberg of Gars-Thunau in Lower Austria: A Hillfort with Central Place Function from the 9th–10th Centuries AD – in German with summaries in English and French), Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 38/2, Mainz, 283–299.

by Hajnalka Herold

Herold, H. 2011, ‘The Fortified Hilltop Site of Gars-Thunau and the Settlements of the 9th and 10th Centuries AD in Lower Austria’, in Macháček, J., Ungerman, Š. (eds.), Frühgeschichtliche Zentralorte in Mitteleuropa, Studien zur Archäologie Europas 14, Bonn: Habelt, 519–528.

by Hajnalka Herold

Stadler, P., Herold, H. 2003, ‘Drei awarenzeitliche Brunnen und sonstige Siedlungsgruben von Brunn am Gebirge, Flur Wolfholz, Bezirk Mödling, Niederösterreich, und die Fundkeramik’ (The Wells and Other Settlement-Features from the Avar Period in Brunn am Gebirge-Wolfholz, District Mödling, Lower Austria, and the Ceramic Finds – in German), Antaeus, Communicationes ex Instituto Archaeologico Academiae Scientiarum Hungariae 26, Budapest, 179–186.

by Hajnalka Herold

XYLOTOMIC AND DENDROCHRONOLOGICAL ANALYSES IN ARCHAEOLOGY: CHANGES IN THE COMPOSITION TYPE OF WOOD IN PRAGUE AND IN SOUTHERN BOHEMIA

by Jaromír Beneš

in journal "Ve sluzbach archeologie" (journal was published only up to 2008)

Based on a simple comparison of the attained results of the analysis of the unburnt wood from the 13th and 14th... more Based on a simple comparison of the attained results of the analysis of the unburnt wood from the 13th and 14th centuries from Prague archaeological sites and dendrochronological data from more recent periods in South Bohemia we discover that both
methods are capable of picking up the range of wood. This reflects a local change in the composition types of the tree floor
vegetation and with it also its potential transport to the capital city. Although the changes in use of the most accessible Central European wood on the axis Prague – South (west) Bohemia are still only implied, it is evident that the connection of xylotomic analysis from archeological sites and dendrochronological data from historic constructions and the living countryside is possible and brings useful results.

Stadler Peter 2002 (2001), High Precision Dating with 14C/Wiggle-Matching by use of external information (year-rings, relative chronology by seriation or stratigraphy). Archäologie und Computer Workshop CD-ROM. PDF-Datei und Powerpoint-Präsentation 6.

by Peter Stadler

Variability in fire regimes of high-elevation whitebark pine communities, western Montana, USA

by Saskia van de Gevel

Influence of climate and disturbance on the growth of Tsuga canadensis at its southern limit.

by Saskia van de Gevel

Revivification of a method for identifying longleaf pine timber and its application to southern pine relicts in southeastern Virginia

by Arvind Bhuta

Published as a research note in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research and co-authored with Thomas L. Eberhardt and Philip M. Sheridan.

Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) cannot be distinguished from the other southern pines based on wood anatomy... more Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) cannot be distinguished from the other southern pines based on wood anatomy alone. A method that involves measuring pith and second annual ring diameters, reported by Arthur Koehler in 1932 (The Southern Lumberman, 145: 36–37), was revisited as an option for identifying longleaf pine timbers and stumps. Cross-section disks of longleaf, loblolly (Pinus taeda L.), and shortleaf (Pinus echinata Mill.) pines were measured and the diameters of their piths and second annual rings plotted against each other. From this plot, longleaf pine could be differentiated from the other two southern pine species, demonstrating that a method established with trees harvested more than 70 years ago is still applicable to standing timber of today. No evidence was found to suggest that different growth rates impact method applicability. In those situations where the second annual ring is intact, but not the pith, very large second annual ring diameters (>40 mm) may identify timbers with a lower probability of being longleaf pine. In addition to the identification of very old lightwood stumps as part of a longleaf pine restoration effort, both methods may be applied to timber identification in historic structures and the niche forest products industry involving the recovery and processing of highly prized longleaf pine logs from river bottoms. Measurements from relicts sampled in this study were consistent with the purported range for longleaf pine in Virginia.

The Practical Application of Dendrochronology to Furniture: The Case of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s Renaissance Burgundian Cabinet

by Arlen Heginbotham

This paper is intended to be a primer for furniture conservators and curators interested in applying dendrochronology,... more This paper is intended to be a primer for furniture conservators and curators interested in applying dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, to the study of furniture. After reviewing the basic principles of dendrochronological analysis, specific considerations related to furniture are discussed. A case study, focusing on a French Renaissance cabinet at the J. Paul Getty Museum, is used to illustrate the procedures required for analysis and to emphasize the use of minimally-intrusive measurement techniques as well as the advantages of close collaboration between dendrochronologist and conservator.

Rediscovering a sixteenth-century Burgundian cabinet at the J. Paul Getty Museum

by Arlen Heginbotham

Jack Hinton and Arlen Heginbotham. The Burlington Magazine, June 2006

The authenticity of a cabinet in the J. Paul Getty Museum collection that was said to be a 16th-century Burgundian... more The authenticity of a cabinet in the J. Paul Getty Museum collection that was said to be a 16th-century Burgundian piece came under doubt in the late 20th century due to its excellent state of preservation and uniform patina, and it was relabeled a 19th-century forgery. In 2001, at the time of an exhibit of the work of Hugues Sambin at the Musée National de la Renaissance (Ecouen, France), the Getty piece was compared favorably to a Sambin cabinet with an unbroken provenance. This led to a serious reinvestigation of the Getty piece, in which both physical and documentary evidence were studied. All evidence suggested that the cabinet was an authentic piece with a replacement base and a new finish. The authors discuss the results of the investigation focusing on the structure and construction of the cabinet and replacement parts and finishes. Dendrochronological analysis and radiocarbon dating were among the analytical techniques used to study the cabinet.

Der bandkeramische Brunnen von Altscherbitz – Eine Kurzbiografie.

by Rengert Elburg

Elburg, R.: Der bandkeramische Brunnen von Altscherbitz – Eine Kurzbiografie. In: R. Smolnik (Hrsg.) Ausgrabungen in Sachsen 2, Arbeits- und Forschungsberichte zur sächsischen Bodendenkmalpflege Beiheft 21, (Dresden 2010) 31-34.

How to make the Forest of Carnutes speak. Dendrochronology as a source for the history of the Roman Empire: Methodological considerations

by Benoît Rossignol

Co-authored with S. Durost, published in P. Fraiture dir., Tree Rings, Art, Archaeology, Proceedings of an international Conference, Brussels, 2011, p. 41-47

While dendrochronology has long been familiar to Roman historians as a dating method, the possibilities that it offers... more While dendrochronology has long been familiar to Roman historians as a dating method, the possibilities that it offers as a source for environmental history has received less attention. With the growth in the amount of available and published data, this situation is however, likely to change. Using the example of our research on the climate of Gaul during the Gallic War, we attempt here to describe dendrochronological climatic data as a historical source. Comparing it with other proxies, we emphasize the value of dendrochronological data from a historical point of view. We wish to clarify the uses to which these data ca be put by a historian and conditions for their interpretation within  an approach that leads from a dendrochronological signal to the interpretation of relationship between society and climate. In order to interpret this, dendrochronological data, like other sources, must be subject to both internal and external critical processes, through interdisciplinary dialogue.

The effects of a-cellulose extraction and blue-stain fungus on retrospective studies of carbon and oxygen isotope variation in live and dead trees

by Nathan English

Published in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry

Strontium isotopes reveal distant sources of architectural timber in Chaco …

by Nathan English

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Variability in the Southern Annular Mode determines wildfire activity in Patagonia

by Andrés Holz

Pilgerodendron uviferum: the southernmost tree-ring fire recorder species

by Andrés Holz

Long-term effects of fire and fire-return interval on population structure and growth of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.)

by Gordon Fox

Ford, C. R., E. S. Minor, and G. A. Fox. 2010. Long-term effects of fire and fire-return interval on population structure and growth of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40:1410-1420.

We investigated the effect of fire and fire frequency on stand structure and longleaf pine (Pinus palustris P. Mill.)... more We investigated the effect of fire and fire frequency on stand structure and longleaf pine (Pinus palustris P. Mill.) growth and population demography in an experimental research area in a southwest Florida sandhill community. Data were collected from replicated plots that had prescribed fire-return intervals of 1, 2, 5, or 7 years or were left unburned. Experimental treatment burns have been ongoing since 1976. Plots were sampled to estimate species distribution, stand structure, and longleaf pine density in four developmental stage classes: grass, bolting, small tree, and large tree. Tree-ring growth measurements in combination with burn history were used to evaluate the effects of fire and fire-return interval on basal area increment growth. Fire-return interval impacted stand structure and longleaf pine population structure. Our results suggest that recruitment from the bolting stage to later stages may become adversely affected with very frequent fires (e.g., every 1 or 2 years). Although adult tree productivity was negatively impacted during fire years, tree growth during years between fire events was resilient such that growth did not differ significantly among fire-return intervals. Our study shows that the longleaf pine population as a whole is strongly regulated by fire and fire-return interval plays a key role in structuring this population.

Effects of climate on diameter growth of co-occurring Fagus sylvatica and Abies alba along an altitudinal gradient

by hendrik davi

In high-elevation forests, growth is limited by low temperatures, while in Mediterranean climates drought and high... more In high-elevation forests, growth is limited by low temperatures, while in Mediterranean climates drought and high temperatures are the main limiting factors. Consequently, the climate-growth relationships on Mont Ventoux, a mountain in the Mediterranean area, are influenced by both factors. Two co-occurring species were studied: silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) and common beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), whose geographical distribution depends on their low tolerance to summer drought at low altitude/latitude, and low temperatures (late frost and short length of the growing season) at high altitude/latitude. Firs and beeches distributed along an elevational gradient were investigated using dendroecological methods. Silver fir growth was found to be more sensitive to summer water stress than beech. On the other hand, beech growth was more impacted by extreme events such as the 2003 heat wave, and negatively related to earlier budburst, which suggests a higher sensitivity to late frost. These results are confirmed by the different altitudinal effects observed in both species. Beech growth decreases with altitude whereas an optimum of growth potential was observed at intermediate elevations for silver fir. Recent global warming has caused a significant upward shift of these optima. As found for the period 2000–2006, rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall may restrain growth of silver fir. If these trends continue in the future beech might be favored at low altitudes. The species will have a reduced capacity to migrate to higher altitudes due to its sensitivity to late frosts, although an upward shift of silver fir is likely.