I've been looking for, but have not found, references to the use of
dendrochronology to date European metallurgical sites. Has anyone actually
used this? After all, you have an 8000-year continuous master record on
European oak, and charcoal can certainly be dated by
dendrochronology. It's done all the time here in the Tree Ring Laboratory
of the University of Arizona on charcoal from hearths, and Jeff Dean (the
Dean of Tree Ring Studies!) tells me that he can be pretty sure of getting
a date if the sample has more than 15 rings. (Alas, there's no metallurgy
in the southwestern US until the Spanish arrive.)
The date obtained will only be a cutting date (i.e. accurate to the
year) if the outer ring is present, but even if it isn't, dendro is
still likely to be more precise than radiocarbon, especially in the flat
sections of the radiocarbon curve like 2600-2100 BP. I doubt that you
have the "old wood" problems in Europe that we have in arid areas, and in
any case prehistoric metalworkers would almost certainly be selecting
younger trees for charcoal burning rather than felling the giants of the
forests (too much work to chop into manageable portions).
Any references (or photocopies, given that we have great difficulty
getting hold of regional European archaeological journals) would be
greatly appreciated.
----------------------
David Killick
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology,
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0030.
Phones: office (520)621-8685; laboratory 621-7986; fax 621-2088
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