Regional Patterns of Late Medieval and Early Modern European Building Activity Revealed by Felling Dates

Although variations in building activity are a useful indicator of societal well-being and demographic development, historical datasets for larger regions and longer periods are still rare. Here, we present 54,045 annually precise dendrochronological felling dates from historical construction timber from across most of Europe between 1250 and 1699 CE to infer variations in building activity. We use geostatistical techniques to compare spatiotemporal dynamics in past European building activity against independent demographic, economic, social and climatic data. We show that the felling dates capture major geographical patterns of demographic trends, especially in regions with dense data coverage. A particularly strong negative association is found between grain prices and the number of felling dates. In addition, a significant positive association is found between the number of felling dates and mining activity. These strong associations, with well-known macro-economic indicators from pre-industrial Europe, corroborate the use of felling dates as an independent source for exploring large-scale fluctuations of societal well-being and demographic development. Three prominent examples are the building boom in the Hanseatic League region of northeastern Germany during the 13th century, the onset of the Late Medieval Crisis in much of Europec. 1300, and the cessation of building activity in large parts of central Europe during armed conflicts such as the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648 CE). Despite new insights gained from our European-wide felling date inventory, further studies are needed to investigate changes in construction activity of high versus low status buildings, and of urban versus rural buildings, and to compare those results with a variety of historical documentary sources and natural proxy archives.</jats:p

Discovering the Unknown History of the Utilization of Pinus heldreichii in Wooden Structures by Means of Dendroarchaeology: A Case Study from Metsovo (Northern Greece)

(1) Background: Pinus heldreichii is a long-living tree subalpine species commonly used for climate reconstruction. Nevertheless, its potential for dendroarchaeology and dating of historical timber remains unknown. In Metsovo and in the surrounding area of Pindus National Park (Northern Greece) it is commonly used for the construction of buildings and wooden objects and artifacts. (2) Methods: We examined timber found in historical buildings within the study area and we tried to date it using local reference chronologies of Bosnian and Black pines. (3) Results: Bosnian pine chronologies can be used to date timber from historical buildings, while they can also be used as reference chronologies against Black pines, giving very high cross-dating values. Therefore, and since the macroscopic identification of the two species’ timber is impossible, the analysis of wood anatomy is necessary to distinguish the two species in the case of historical wood. (4) Conclusions: The current paper presents the first application of dendroarchaeology for Bosnian pine and highlights the potential of the species in studying cultural heritage and the human past. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Dieter Eckstein – A cornerstone of European dendrochronology

On November 10th 2021, Dieter Eckstein passed away at age 82. Born and raised as a forester's child, his entire life was connected to trees and wood. He grew up to become a dedicated scientist and teacher. His legacy includes both his own considerable research accomplishments as well as his founding of a growing network of tree biologists and wood scientists. From his doctoral degree onwards, the concepts and applications of dendrochronology were his passion, motivated by great curiosity in environmental influences on tree growth. He proved that dendroarchaeology can be accurate and precise, even for timber grown in the mild European maritime climate. He pioneered both techniques and concepts of xylogenesis and quantitative wood anatomy and advanced the potential for tropical dendrochronology. In all of these accomplishments, Dieter collaborated with students and colleagues from all over the world. His Dendrochronological Laboratory at the University of Hamburg hosted both young and experienced scientists from many countries. The European Working Group on Dendrochronology, which he founded in the early 1990s, was his natural habitat and playground to invent and present new research activities. We and the entire dendrochronology community have lost an inspiring colleague and visionary

Potential for a new multimillennial tree-ring chronology from subfossil Balkan River oaks

A total of 272 oak (Quercus sp.) samples have been collected from large subfossil trees dredged from sediment deposited by the Sava and various tributary rivers in the Zagreb region of northwestern Croatia, and in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Measurement series of tree-ring widths from these samples produced 12 groups, totaling 3456 years of floating tree-ring chronologies spread through the last ca. 8000 years. This work represents the first step in creating a new, high-resolution resource for dating and paleoenvironmental reconstruction in the Balkan region and potentially a means to bridge between the floating tree-ring chronologies of the wider Mediterranean region and the continuous long chronologies from central Europe.Center for Mediterranean Archaeology and the Environment (CMATE) Special Issue, Joint publication of Radiocarbon and Tree-Ring Research, also cited as Pearson, C., Ważny, T., Kuniholm, P., Botić, K., Durman, A., & Seufer, K. (2014). Potential for a New Multimillennial Tree-Ring Chronology from Subfossil Balkan River Oaks. Radiocarbon, 56(4), S51-S59.This item is part of the Tree-Ring Research (formerly Tree-Ring Bulletin) archive. For more information about this peer-reviewed scholarly journal, please email the Editor of Tree-Ring Research at [email protected]

Interpreting the Story Old Timber Can Tell: An Example from a ‘Venetian’ Building in Nafplio

The current study is a dendroarchaeological/dendroarchitectural investigation of the remains of a historically important multi-phase building, nicknamed ‘Enetiko’, located in Nafplio. Timber was used for the floors, the roof, and timber-framed walls of the building. Timber elements were also embedded in masonry. Particularly important are the architraves; ground storey timber lintels on the southern façade. According to prior research, the earliest phase was thought to date to the early 18th century with a later 19th century modification. Therefore, we applied dendrochronology to check whether it represents an early construction phase of the building and to confirm the previously mentioned different phases. Timber examination revealed six tree species and 60% of the 85 samples collected in total were dated. Imported deciduous oaks (Quercus spp.), dated c.1530 or after, represent an early Venetian or Ottoman phase of the building. Turkish origin of oaks suggests Ottoman period. Imported fir, most likely Abies alba, was dated in the 17th and 18th centuries. Black pine (Pinus nigra) from Greece and juniper (Juniperus sp.) from the East were used in interventions of the late 19th and 20th centuries. © 2021 Taylor &amp; Francis

Bridging the gaps in tree-ring records: Creating a high-resolution dendrochronological network for southeastern Europe

Dendrochronological research in North-Central Europe and the East Mediterranean has produced networks of long regional oak (Quercus sp.) reference chronologies that have been instrumental in dating, provenancing, and paleoclimate research applications. However, until now these two important tree-ring networks have not been successfully linked. Oak forests and historical/archaeological sites in southeastern Europe provide the key for linking the North-Central European and East Mediterranean tree-ring networks, but previous dendrochronological research in this region has been largely absent. This article presents the initial results of a project, in which we have built oak tree-ring chronologies from forest sites and historical/archaeological sites along a north-south transect between Poland and northwestern Turkey, with the aim of linking the North-Central European and East Mediterranean tree-ring networks and creating a new pan-European oak data set for dendrochronological dating and paleoclimatic reconstruction. Correlation among tree-ring chronologies and the spatial distribution of their teleconnections are evaluated. The southeastern European chronologies provide a solid bridge between both major European dendrochronological networks. The results indicate that a dense network of chronologies is the key for bridging spatial and temporal gaps in tree-ring records. Dendrochronological sampling should be intensively continued in southeastern Europe because resources for building long oak chronologies in the region are rapidly disappearing.Center for Mediterranean Archaeology and the Environment (CMATE) Special Issue, Joint publication of Radiocarbon and Tree-Ring Research, also cited as Ważny, T., Lorentzen, B., Köse, N., Akkemik, Ü, Boltryk, Y., Güner, T., . . . Vasileva, J. (2014). Bridging the Gaps in Tree-Ring Records: Creating a High-Resolution Dendrochronological Network for Southeastern Europe. Radiocarbon, 56(4), S39-S50.This item is part of the Tree-Ring Research (formerly Tree-Ring Bulletin) archive. For more information about this peer-reviewed scholarly journal, please email the Editor of Tree-Ring Research at [email protected]

Dendrochronological analysis and radiocarbon dating of charcoal remains from the multi-period site of Uşaklı Höyük, Yozgat, Turkey

In the current study we use methods in dendrochronological dating, radiocarbon dating and wiggle-matching analysis to accurately date charcoal samples collected from the archaeological site of Uşaklı Höyük, Yozgat, Turkey. These data contribute to the understanding of the stratigraphical relationships in three different contexts of this multi-period mound. The examined charcoal materials were identified as cedar (Cedrus sp.) and oak (Quercus sp.). The analysis of the cedar samples resulted in establishing a floating chronology with a length of 49 rings. Further analysis of the material revealed that secure dendrochronological dating against the existing reference chronologies cannot be achieved for any of the Uşaklı Höyük samples selected for dendrochronology. This is due to the insufficient length of the developed mean chronology (49 rings), the shortness of single tree-ring sequences (max. 34 rings for cedar and 23 for oak) and the scarcity of reference chronologies that can be used for cross-dating. Therefore, we use radiocarbon tests and wiggle-matching analysis as the main dating method. Radiocarbon testing and further analysis of absolute dating of the charcoal pieces point to three different archaeological periods: the wooden post found in Room 433 of Building III is dated to the range of 1415 – 1363 BCE (2σ), confirming the assumption that it was an architectural element of the original construction of this Late Bronze Age/Hittite building. Radiocarbon dating results of charcoal pieces from the filling of Pit 330, 1008 – 905 BCE (2σ), can only be used tentatively and require cross-checking against additional samples and other organic material from the same context. The results of radiocarbon dating of charcoal samples associated with the Iron Age stone glacis built on top of Building III (763 – 486 BCE, 2σ) confirm that they are associated with the Iron Age occupation at Uşaklı Höyük