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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture You should try and read the White Goddess by Graves, Chris, both Flaky and Pretty Interesting at the same time. Henk -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Namens Christopher Crockett Verzonden: donderdag 27 januari 2011 19:21 Aan: [log in to unmask] Onderwerp: Re: [M-R] Dating yew trees (WAS: Re: [M-R] double monasteries) medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture watching this little string go bye, i realized that i had no idea what a yew tree might look like, much less ever having dated one (they're just not my type, i suppose, being more of a Walnut kind of Guy, myself). so, i looked a bit on that Ultimate Pons Asinorum, The Innernets, to see what i might come up with. now, i may not know from yews, guys, but i've got a pretty good clue that *this* is an old, old tree: http://cornishevangelist.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/sussex-west-2814.jpg to say nothing of being very difficult for even it's mother to date. for dendrochronology works at all for dating such a "muliti-stalked" tree as this, the wood would have to be very, very dense (i.e., slow growing) indeed. what a strange creature. turns out that "Taxus baccata is a *conifer* native to western, central and southern Europe..." and was at the very heart of the English Longbow Military Industrial Complex http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxus_baccata#Longbows which, ultimately, led to European-wide over yewing, with considerable ecological damage by early modren times. this "Door of the Chapel in a Norman yew" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LaHayeDeRoutotIf1.JPG has to be the favorite of this list. this site http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/yew.htm is more-than-a-bit new-agey, but this statement "The Yew is sacred to Hecate, and the Crone aspect of the Triple Goddess; both are guardians of the Underworld, death and the afterlife" is surely based on the work of Robert Graves, generally thought by academics (esp. those who have never read his works) to be somewhat of an igorint an irrelevant nutcase, but whose _Greek Myths_ (2 vols.) is, to my mind and experience, a first-rate piece of work, its somewhat over-stretched interpretive material perhaps to the contrary notwithstanding. c ------ Original Message ------ Received: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 09:25:49 AM EST From: Alison Goulbourne <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [M-R] Dating yew trees (WAS: Re: [M-R] double monasteries) > 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 > > ____________________________________________________________ > > > > ********************************************************************** > > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > > to: [log in to unmask] > > To send a message to the list, address it to: > > [log in to unmask] > > To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion > > to: [log in to unmask] > > In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: > > [log in to unmask] > > For further information, visit our web site: > > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html > > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > to: [log in to unmask] > To send a message to the list, address it to: > [log in to unmask] > To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion > to: [log in to unmask] > In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: > [log in to unmask] > For further information, visit our web site: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html