Selected Problem Periods in the Prehistory of the Eastern Mediterranean: A Dendrochronological Solution

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With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Peter Kuniholm and his collaborators will continue to construct a master dendrochronology for the Eastern Mediterranean and to provide precise dates for sites of archaeological interest. `Dendrochronology`, or tree ring dating, is the most accurate dating technique available to scientists. Because the thickness of wood rings which trees add annually is affected by temperature and rainfall, these vary from year to year and it is possible to start with living trees, plot a thickness curve back from a known starting date and then extend the series further backwards in time with the addition of samples from geological and archaeological contexts. One can take wood of unknown age from archaeological sites and match it against the master curve to determine the absolute age of the rings. Dr. Kuniholm and his colleagues have single-handedly worked for many years to construct such a master chronology for Greece, Turkey and other countries in the Eastern Mediterranean. This has resulted in a chronology which covers some 6,500 of the last 9,200 years. The longest part of the chronology is 1,633 years long and absolutely dated from A.D. 3652-1994. The remaining portions have had their age anchored by radiocarbon dating, but they still `float` because gaps remain between them and the major part of the chronology which is anchored in the present. Dr. Kuniholm and colleagues will now work at carefully determined archaeological sites to collect wood samples which will attach the floaters to the master sequence. Over the course of three field seasons he will focus on 53 prehistoric sites where evidence suggests an unusually large number of well-preserved samples exist. These include the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze age periods. The team will visit sites to collect suitable samples, meet with archaeologists who curate such materials and analyze wood thus collected at Cornell University's tree ring laboratory. The project is extremely important because the resulting sequence will permit the absolute dating of large numbers of archaeological occurrences. Because the laboratory involves many undergraduate students it will continue to play an important role is science education.