Dave
It is usually reckoned in Britain that you need 60 rings to be sure of a dendro match with oak; presumably there is more variability than you find in your local timber. Species other than oak cannot be matched to an oak master curve and there are no long chronologies for other species, though I believe some work has been done on late medieval and later pine.
It is usually thought that charcoal for processes that used considerable amounts, such as smelting, was made largely from coppiced wood which is normally cut on a 15-25 year cycle. It is therefore not surprising that dendro dates are not normally available to directly date phases of industrial production.
On some sites structures on site have been dated by dendro and associated metallurgical features and finds can therefore be dated. Examples include the Coppergate site in York and Wood Quay in Dublin where there were numerous phases of Anglo-Scandinavian/Viking buildings, many of which produced metalworking debris, both ferrous and non-ferrous.
Justine
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Justine Bayley
English Heritage Centre for Archaeology
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