Re-Bound Book Covers from the Island of Piirissaar, Estonia

Old Believers’ service books from the Piirissaar house of prayer in Estonia were rescued from a fire and the damaged oak boards of the wooden covers of one of the books were dendrochronologically dated back to AD 1353. The dendrochronological reference shows that the oak wood originates from East Pomerania-Gdansk region. The intriguing fact is that the book was not printed until 1879 in Moscow. The seemingly contradictory dates and locations can be explained by the adventurous history of the Old Believers sects in Russia. The Old Believers were suppressed during the Russian Orthodox Church reforms between 1652 and 1666 and many of them escaped to remote marginal areas of the empire or emigrated, e.g. to Rzeczpospolita. Due to lively communication between the Old Believers’ congregations, their literature moved from country to country. In this case, a newer book of the Old Believers was bound with old wooden covers from Poland

The History of Dowry Chests Captured in Wood: Dendrochronological Research on Chests from the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, Greece

Chests represented important piece of the household and sacral furniture until the end of 18th century. They were commonly used as containers, both for everyday needsand also for special occasions such as in the case of marriage/dowry chests. Nowadays chests can be found in museums, monasteries, palaces, historic buildings, but alsoin private collections, with some of them having great aesthetic, ethnographic and historical interest. In the current study we present the results of wood examinationof five chests exhibited in the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights in Rhodes, Greece. Most of them were made of walnut, while the one made of conifer was useful for further dendrochronological analysis. Macroscopic examination of timber and cross-dating results suggest that the species used for its construction is most probablyCedrus libani, originating from Turkey. 1698 AD is the outermost preserved (most recent) ring, placing the chest’s construction during the Early Modern period of Europe,most likely at the beginning of the 18th century. Regarding the timber origin, the chest is an example confirming that during the early 18th century there was a trade betweenEurope and the East Aegean Islands, which then belonged to the Ottoman Empire.Historia skrzyń posagowych ukryta w drewnie: badania dendrochronologiczne skrzyń z Pałacu Wielkich Mistrzów w Rodos, Grecja Skrzynie stanowiły ważny element wyposażenia domostw oraz budynków sakralnych do końca XVIII wieku. Używane były do przechowywania różnego rodzaju przedmiotów, zarówno w życiu codziennym, jak i przy specjalnych okazjach – przykładem są skrzynie posagowe. Obecnie zabytkowe skrzynie można znaleźć w muzeach,klasztorach, pałacach, budynkach historycznych oraz kolekcjach prywatnych, wiele z nich jest szczególnie interesujących pod względem estetyki, etnografii, historii.W niniejszym artykule prezentujemy wyniki badań drewna pięciu skrzyń należących do kolekcji muzeum mieszczącego się w Pałacu Wielkich Mistrzów w mieście Rodos (Grecja, wyspa Rodos). Większość zbadanych skrzyń wykonana została z drewna orzechowego, jedna z drewna iglastego. Skrzynię wykonaną z drewna iglastego zakwalifikowano do badań dendrochronologicznych. Zarówno obserwacja makroskopowa drewna, jak i wyniki analiz dendrochronologicznych sugerują, że skrzynia zostaławykonana z drewna cedrowego (Cedrus libani) pochodzącego z Turcji. Najmłodszy zachowany przyrost został wydatowany na rok 1698. Uzyskane wyniki pozwalająustalić powstanie skrzyni na początek XVIII wieku. Pochodzenie drewna potwierdza istnienie kontaktów handlowych pomiędzy Europą a wschodnimi Wyspami Egejskimi, które w tamtym czasie należały do imperium osmańskiego

A DOOR IN USE IN TALLINN APPEARED TO BE OVER 600 YEARS OLD

In a medieval tower in the Tallinn Old Town wall there is a woodeninternal door that was suspected of being rather old. The age of thedoor was determined using dendrochronology. It was possible tomeasure tree rings from the lower ends of the oak planks of the door.Matching the ring-width series with oak references from northernEurope revealed that the door was over 600 years old, and still inplace in medieval Bremen Tower in Tallinn, Estonia. The ring-widthseries of the door was most similar to oak chronology from theDaugava River. However, this does not mean that the door timbersoriginate from that region. At present, we do not possess Estonianoak chronologies extending back to that time. Thus, the provenanceof the oak for this door remains undecided. The dendrochronologicaldate of the door, AD 1394–1411, can be confirmed and can be narrowedby documentary evidence to AD 1400–1410

The fungal endophyte Epichloë typhina improves photosynthesis efficiency of its host orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata)

According to the results presented in this paper the fungal endophyteEpichloë typhinasignificantly improves the growth, PSII photochemistry and C assimilation efficiency of its hostDactylis glomerata. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of the impact of the endophytic fungi Epichloë typhina on its plant hosts’ photosynthesis apparatus. Chlorophyll a fluorescence, gas exchange, immuno-blotting and spectrophotometric measurements were employed to assess photosynthetic performance, changes in pigment content and mechanisms associated with light harvesting, carbon assimilation and energy distribution in Dactylis glomerata colonized with Epichloë typhina. According to the results presented in this study, colonization of D. glomerata results in improved photosynthesis efficiency. Additionally, we propose a new mechanism allowing plants to cope with the withdrawal of a significant fraction of its energy resources by the endophytic fungi. The abundance of LHCI, LHCII proteins as well as chlorophyll b was significantly higher in E+ plants. Malate export out of the chloroplast was shown to be increased in colonized plants. To our knowledge, we are the first to report this phenomenon. Epichloë colonization improved PSII photochemistry and C assimilation efficiency. Elevated energy demands of E+ D. glomerata plants are met by increasing the rate of carbon assimilation and PSII photochemistry. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00425-015-2337-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users