Latewood Ring Width Reveals CE 1734 Felling Dates for Walker House Timbers in Tupelo, Mississippi, USA

Dendroarchaeology is under-represented in the Gulf Coastal Plain region of United States (US), and at present, only three published studies have precision dated a collection 18th–19th-century structures. In this study, we examined tree-ring data from pine, poplar, oak timbers used Walker House Tupelo, Mississippi. The was constructed ca. mid-1800s with that appeared to be recycled previous total, 30 samples (16 pines, 8 oaks, 6 poplars) attic crawlspace. We cross-dated latewood ring growth pine period 1541–1734 (r = 0.52, t 8.43, p < 0.0001) using 514-year longleaf (Pinus palustris Mill.) reference chronology southern crawlspace produced 57-year against white (Quercus alba L.) northeast Alabama 1765–1822 0.36, 2.83, 0.01). were unable cross-date six poplar due lack chronologies region. Our findings two important implications: (1) material 1734 represents oldest dendroarchaeology-confirmed dating match for construction materials southeastern US, (2) cross-dating US species statistically significant results, whereas total width failed produce results.