Precise tree-ring dating of building activities despite the absence of bark: A case-study on medieval church roofs in Damme, Belgium

Haneca, Kristof; Debonne, Vincent

doi:10.1016/j.dendro.2011.06.002

Cited by 36 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Our results indicate that a higher precision of provenancing can be achieved for ring‐porous oak wood when combining wood‐anatomical variables such as LW and size of EW‐vessels, rather than using TRW (or LW) alone, as is usually the case in dendroprovenancing (e.g. Domínguez‐Delmás et al., ; Haneca & Debonne, ). We found that annual variation patterns in LW and vessel D h of the study species were related to the biogeographical origin, especially for D h .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Multi‐variable approach pinpoints origin of oak wood with higher precision

Akhmetzyanov

Buras

Sass‐Klaassen

et al. 2019

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim Spatial variations of environmental conditions translate into biogeographical patterns of tree growth. This fact is used to identify the origin of timber by means of dendroprovenancing. Yet, dendroprovenancing attempts are commonly only based on ring‐width measurements, and largely neglect additional tree–ring variables. We explore the potential of using wood anatomy as a dendroprovenancing tool, and investigate whether it increases the precision of identifying the origin of oak wood. Since different tree–ring variables hold different information on environmental conditions prevailing at specific times of the growing season—which vary between source regions—we hypothesize that their inclusion allows more precise dendroprovenancing. Location Europe, Spain. Taxon Quercus robur L., Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl., Quercus faginea Lam., Quercus pyrenaica Willd. Methods We sampled four oak species across Northern Spain, i.e. from the Basque country and Cantabria and—in the Basque country—from low to high elevation (topographic/latitudinal gradient). We measured multiple tree–ring variables to (a) extract complementary variables; (b) present statistical relations among them; (c) analyse region‐specific variation in their patterns based on time–series of individual trees; and (d) determine underlying climate–growth relationships. Leave‐one‐out analysis was used to test whether a combination of selected variables allowed dendroprovenancing of a randomly selected tree within the area. Results A combination of latewood width (LW) and earlywood vessel size was used to pinpoint the origin of oak wood with higher precision than ring width or LW only. Variation in LW pinpointed the wood to east and west areas, whereas variation in vessels assigned wood to locations along a latitudinal/topographic gradient. The climatic triggers behind these gradients are respectively an east–west gradient in June–July temperature and a north–south gradient in winter/spring temperatures. The leave‐one‐out analyses supported the robustness of these results. Main conclusions Integration of multiple wood–xylem anatomical variables analysed with multivariate techniques leads to higher precision in the dendroprovenancing of ring‐porous oak species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Multi‐variable approach pinpoints origin of oak wood with higher precision

Akhmetzyanov

Buras

Sass‐Klaassen

et al. 2019

Journal of Biogeography

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“…Subsequently, all dated samples with incomplete sapwood were used to build up a Bayesian model in order to verify whether these samples pointed towards the same felling date. For estimating the missing number of sapwood rings, the remodelled Hollstein () dataset was used (see Haneca and Debonne, for more details) and implemented in OxCal (v2.2, Bronk Ramsey, 1995; 2009). However, this model failed when including all eight samples from Doel 1 with incomplete sapwood.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although there are no dendrochronological arguments to support this division, this procedure was followed to verify whether these two functional groups of timbers could have a different provenance. It is well‐known that timber was tied together and rafted downstream along major rivers systems (Eissing and Dittmar, ; Haneca and Debonne, : 32; Houbrechts, : 17–25; Van Prooije, ). Therefore it might be argued that stems or squared logs are more suited for this kind of bulk transport (Daly, 2011a: 107) compared to the sometimes big and heavy Y‐shaped timbers that were used to make floor timbers or futtocks.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The distance between the timber source and the shipyard should be discussed taking into account bulk transport of wood along river systems. This has been reported since the Roman times (Domínguez‐Delmás et al ., in press) and there is abundant archaeological and documentary evidence for the transport of this bulky wood as rafts since the Middle Ages (Van Prooije, ; Houbrechts, : 17–25; Eissing and Dittmar, ; Haneca and Debonne, : 32). Furthermore, the transport of timber aboard ships cannot be discarded either.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tree-Rings, Timbers and Trees: a dendrochronological survey of the 14th-century cog, Doel 1

Haneca

Daly²

2013

International Journal of Nautical Archaeology

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In 2000, the remains of a cog, Doei 1, were found in Doei, Belgium. W ood species identification of all ship timbers and smaller elements was performed. E uropean oak was the dom inant species, followed by alder that was used for the fairings. In total 150 ring-width series were recorded. The construction date was set at A D 1325/26 and the timbers proved to originate from forests along the rivers Elbe and Weser. F or the bottom strakes a strict symmetrical layout was observed. The keel plank was hewn from a trunk with a slightly earlier felling date. Repairs were perform ed with high-quality boards, some with a southern Baltic provenance.

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“…Demographic evolution during the Middle Ages in Northern Europe and during the Age of Discovery in the Iberian peninsula 1 resulted in an increased need for construction timber which in turn had an impact on forest cover in these areas 2 . Particularly around the growing market towns, local forests could hardly sustain the increased demand in primarily high-quality timber for shipbuilding, construction of monumental buildings, such as cathedrals 3 and urban infrastructure 4 . Vast amounts of wood were imported and transported from elsewhere, mainly by rafting via the rivers or by shipping 5 , 6 even from other continents 1 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DNA of centuries-old timber can reveal its origin

Akhmetzyanov¹,

Copini²,

Sass‐Klaassen³

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Oak wood was highly appreciated and widely used for construction in past centuries. As population sizes expanded in some regions of Europe, local forests were depleted of high-quality timber. Therefore, regions of soaring economies were importing timber initially from the European market and eventually from other continents. Origin of archaeological or historical timber is usually identified by means of dendroprovenancing, i.e. statistical matching of tree-ring-width (TRW) series of timber of unknown origin with TRW reference datasets. However, this method has pitfalls and limitations and therefore alternative techniques are needed. Here, we used three different DNA analysis methods to investigate the potential of using ancient (a)DNA, extracted from oak timber derived from historical buildings and shipwrecks from a variety of countries. All the material had also been analysed dendrochronologically, so its dating and provenance is demonstrated. We included heartwood samples in this analysis, for which DNA extraction is especially challenging as it contains chemicals that inhibit DNA amplification. We succeeded in amplifying DNA for at least one marker from 56% of samples (including heartwood samples), yielding crucial information that allowed us to identify the potential source area of centuries old timber buildings in Latvia and Denmark and of 750-year-old shipwreck material from Germany. Our results prove the strong potential of DNA analyses for identifying timber origin to the regional scale, but by combining these with the dendrochronological results, we can control the exactitude of the aDNA approach and demonstrate a more nuanced examination of the timber sources for these historic structures.

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Precise tree-ring dating of building activities despite the absence of bark: A case-study on medieval church roofs in Damme, Belgium

Cited by 36 publications

References 16 publications

Multi‐variable approach pinpoints origin of oak wood with higher precision

Multi‐variable approach pinpoints origin of oak wood with higher precision

Tree-Rings, Timbers and Trees: a dendrochronological survey of the 14th-century cog, Doel 1

DNA of centuries-old timber can reveal its origin

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