medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Many thanks, Chris, both for the very interesting explanation and for
the reference.
Cheers,
Jim
On 26/01/2011 12:03 PM, Chris Laning 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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