Southwestern Archaeological Tree-Ring Dating

NSF将提供预期五年中的第一个 支持亚利桑那大学树木年轮实验室 Research. 它允许实验室雇佣全职的 树木年代学家分析考古样本，并提供 研究生助理的半职补助 树轮测年技术是亚利桑那州首创的。 因为树木的生长速度是由环境决定的 在不同的条件下，树木的年轮形式各异， 厚 可以通过以下方法建立树木年轮年表： 从现在到很久以前的交叉匹配树 史前的过去，然后使用这个“主记录”来确定日期 从考古和其他地方收集的小木材样本 situations. 对于美国西南部的考古学家来说 这项技术是一项布恩，因为它允许 材料的日期在一年内。 这远远超过了 放射性碳年代测定的准确性。 因为它没有得到足够的支持，因为许多 考古学家缺乏资金支付其服务， 亚利桑那州实验室无法独自跟上步伐 考古学要求确定样品年代。 该项目将 帮助纠正这种情况。 特别是， 年轻科学家和那些与主线研究无关的人 机构职能体系

The NSF will provide the first of an expected five years of support to the University of Arizona Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. It allows the laboratory to hire a full-time dendrochronologist to analyze archaeological samples and provides half-time support for a graduate student assistant. The technique of tree-ring dating was pioneered at Arizona. Because the rate of tree growth is determined by environmental conditions, yearly growth rings in a tree vary in form and thickness. It is possible to build up a tree ring chronology by cross matching trees from the present to well back in the prehistoric past and then to use this "master record" to date small wood samples collected from archaeological and other situations. For archaeologists in the Southwestern United States, this technique has been a boon because it allows materials to be dated within one year. This far exceeds the accuracy of radiocarbon dating. Because it has not been adequately supported and because many archaeologists lack the funds to pay for its services, the Arizona laboratory has not been able on its own to keep pace with archaeological requests for sample dating. This project will help to remedy that situation. In particular, it will benefit young scientists and those not associated with main line research institutions.