Dendrochronologische analyse van Vroegmiddeleeuwse waterputten

E. Jansma, R.J. van Lanen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterProfessional

Abstract

This study focuses on the combined dendrochronological analysis of oak sampled from water wells excavated in Wijk bij Duurstede-De Geer. The goals are to refine the chronological knowledge about De Geer, to improve our insight into the geographical provenance of the oak that was applied here, and to contribute to the spatial analysis of the site. The dataset is comprised of 70 tree-ring series from 15 water wells, of which 58 result from older studies that took place in the 1990’s and 12 are new analyses from samples that previously were not analyzed using dendrochronology. Early Medieval tree-ring series are available through the recently developed data repository DCCD (http://dendro.dans.knaw.nl) and published chronologies (e.g. Hollstein 1980) are used as reference data. The results show that during the excavations at De Geer archaeologists focussed on re-used barrels for dendrochronological purposes, whereas barrels are less-well suited for obtaining chronological precision. The wood of nine water wells can be dated dendrochronologically, which in most cases due to the absence of sapwood only leads to a post quem date of the year in which the trees were cut down. The dendrochronological dates range from the second half of the 6th century to the beginning of the 9th century, with dates in the 7th and 8th century occurring most frequently. In most cases the time interval between the post quem dates is too narrow to be suitable for determining an exact chronological order of construction. The provenance of the wood reflects a process of ‘internationalization’: the earliest dates are from two water wells constructed with local oak (6th and 7th century; features WD773-5-121 and WD860-2-9), whereas water wells built from the 8th century onwards consist of barrels from oak that grew the vicinity of Steinbach in the German Rhineland.
Original languageDutch
Title of host publicationVoorgeschiedenis en opkomst van Dorestad
Editors S. Heeren
Place of PublicationAmersfoort
PublisherRijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed
ISBN (Print)in press
Publication statusPublished - 2013

Publication series

NameNederlandse Archeologische Rapporten

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