medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Many thanks to chris laning for information on dating the yew trees.
Sent from my iPhone
On 26 Jan 2011, at 18:03, Chris Laning <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> (wearing former botanist hat ;)
>
> To the best of my knowledge, yew trees are dated by a combination of
> dendrochronology (samples taken from what appears to be the oldest
> surviving wood) and estimated growth curves. These curves are based
> on abundant measurement data from surviving trunks and stumps, dates
> of mention for known yews in documentary evidence, and known and
> projected growth rates. AFAIK very little radiocarbon dating of
> living yews has actually been done (according to my 2002 source),
> and yew wood is hard enough that apparently it's notoriously
> difficult to get good cores. David Bellamy is indeed a major figure
> in this research.
>
> As with any estimates, these growth curves are only as good as the
> volume and quality of the data they are based on. But there's
> actually been a fairly large amount of work done on this, much of it
> in the last twenty years or so. As one might expect, there's
> considerable discussion of these issues among various experts, whose
> estimates of dates can vary widely for the same tree.
>
> Although it's not a scholarly work, I recommend _The Ancient Yew_ by
> Robert Bevan-Jones for a discussion of these issues. (2002, ISBN
> #0-9538630-4-2)
>
> ____________________________________________________________
>
> O Chris Laning <[log in to unmask]> - Davis, California
> + http://paternoster-row.org - http://paternosters.blogspot.com
> ____________________________________________________________
>
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