This document provides an overview of dendroarchaeology and its applications in dating archaeological artifacts and structures. It discusses how dendrochronology was used to date the timbers of the Mary Celeste ghost ship to after 1894 in southwestern Georgia. It also describes how tree-ring analysis of the Skuldelev 2 shipwreck allowed researchers to determine it was constructed in Dublin, Ireland in the second half of the 11th century. Finally, it mentions many other applications of dendrochronology in archaeology, such as dating the Messiah Stradivarius violin and the wooden structures at 'Seahenge' in England.

1. DENDROARCHEOLOGY
Photograph: Stones 55

2. “
To be present at the instance of the celebrated breakthrough
in science that set the chronological house in order for the
”
Southwestern United States was reward enough.
Emil Haury, 1962

3. Aztec Ruin National Monument New Mexico
Photograph: Sco Catron

6. 1
ONE
THE GHOST SHIP

7. THE
‘MARY CELESTE’

10. “ In December 1872, she was discovered at sea
with all sail set and everything in order but
”
not a person was on board or ever found.
Spicer, 1942

12. Sank off Haiti, 1885

16. “ Detailed analysis of twelve samples of wood by
Dr. David Etheridge, a wood scientist from
Victoria, British Columbia, showed the ship was
built either in Northern New England or the
”
Maritime Provinces of Canada.
NUMA.net
h p://www.numa.net/press/080801.html

18. Photograph: Chris M.
Longleaf pine Pinus palustris

19. h p://esp.cr.usgs.gov/data/atlas/li le/

21. Longleaf pine
chronologies
h p://esp.cr.usgs.gov/data/atlas/li le/

23. 1820 - 1887
1852 - 1894
1836 - 1890

24. “ Crossdating suggests that these timbers
were derived from trees cut in the vicinity of
”
southwestern Georgia some time a er 1894.
St. George 2001, Report to NUMA and Geomarine Associates

27. 2
TWO
RED RIVER SETTLEMENTS

30. Photograph: Greg Brooks

31. 2008

32. 1875

34. Fort Dufferin 1873
Photo: Erik Nielsen

35. Photo: Erik Nielsen

37. ‘Rat River’ House 1859
Photo: Erik Nielsen

39. 3
THREE
THE RETURN OF THE SEA STALLION

40. Roskilde

45. Skuldelev 2 30-m long, 3.8-m wide, 70 to 80-member crew

46. “ The most important limitation [of shipwreck
archaeology]…is the virtual impossibility of
”
deducing the shipyard where a vessel was built.
Basch, 1972

48. “ It was possible to correlate the tree-ring curves
from twelve planks and the keel and construct
a chronology that spanned 248 years,
”
representing the building phase of the ship.
Bonde and Crumlin-Pederson, 1990

49. Roskilde

50. Source: Bonde and Crumlin-Pederson, 1990

52. “ The Skuldelev-chronology fi ed perfectly with
all the chronologies except the one for Belfast,
which, as it turned out, did not cover the dating
”
range for our curve.
Bonde and Crumlin-Pederson, 1990

53. “ Based on these results we can conclude that
the longship excavated in Denmark was built in
the region of the Irish Sea, most likely in Dublin,
”
in the second half of the 11th century.
Bonde and Crumlin-Pederson, 1990

55. Roskilde
Dublin

62. Photograph: William Murphy

63. “ The result [of successful dendrochronological dating on
ships] is o en so precise that every recognized theory
”
which conflicts with it is immediately discredited.
Bonde & Christensen 1982

64. MANY OTHER APPLICATIONS

65. The Messiah-Salabue Stradivarius of 1716

66. Photograph: Henri Grissino-Mayer

67. Source: Friedrich et al., Radiocarbon, 2004

68. Source: Friedrich et al., Radiocarbon, 2004

69. ‘Seahenge’ Trees felled in 2049 B.C.E.

71. “ Fluctuation in the amount of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere can also affect
”
the concentration of 14C in the CO2.
University of Arizona AMS Laboratory

72. Source: Reimer et al., Radiocarbon, 2004

73. “ The Holocene part of the 14C calibration is based on
several millennia-long tree-ring chronologies providing
an annual, absolute time frame within the possible error
of the dendrochronology, which was rigorously tested by
”
internal replication of many overlapping sections.
Reimer et al., Radiocarbon, 2004

74. Cu ing dates
Dates assigned to crossdated wood or charcoal specimens
that possess evidence that the last ring present on the
specimen was the last ring grown by the tree before it died.
Source: Nash, Journal of Archeological Research, 2002

75. Photograph: Ron Towner

77. Photograph: Pearce Paul Creasman

78. Noncu ing dates
Dates assigned to crossdated specimens if there is no evidence
indicating that the last ring present on the specimen
was the last one growth before the tree died.
Source: Nash, Journal of Archeological Research, 2002

79. Date clustering
If a number of tree-ring dates from a given site cluster in one
calendar year (or are very close together), one can infer that
some substantial construction (or repair) occurred at that time.
Source: Nash, Journal of Archeological Research, 2002

80. Reading
Nash (2002) Archaeological tree-ring dating at
the millennium. Journal of Archeological
Research 3, 243-275.

81. NO CLASS
April 12 and April 14

82. Reading
Stoffel and Bollschweiler (2008), Tree-ring
analysis in natural hazards research – an
overview. Natural Hazards and Earth Systems
Science 8, 187-202.

83. Reading
Stoffel et al. (2010), Whither Dendrogeomorphology?
In Stoffel et al., (eds.), Tree Rings and Natural
Hazards.