Tree rings and archaeology: dating Roman oaks

Roman Archaeology Group Inc

With the apparent return of the historical epic movie – Braveheart, Gladiator, The Passion of Christ, Troy, King Arthur and several films of Alexander and Boudicca (Boadicea for those over 40), attention is again focused on the authenticity of the genre. Was it really like that? Is the costume and architecture true to life? And, most commonly asked by those who enjoyed Gladiator, was the grippi...

Scientific Dating in Archaeology

The RAG Roman Archaeology : Challenges and Opportunities —

Looking back over the last three decades of Roman archaeology I find it difficult not to be impressed by the huge advances the discipline had made. The quantity of information collected has increased enormously. Romanists have enthusiastically embraced new archaeological technologies, and entire new subject areas landscape archaeology, palaeopathology, and underwater archaeology for instance ha...

Trackways and Tree Trunks -dating Neolithic Oaks in the British Isles

The Midlands and South -west of England are represented by a long oak tree -ring chronology spanning approximately 4500 -3900 BC (calibrated radiocarbon dates). The wood on which it is based originates in a technologically advanced trackway crossing the low -lying Somerset Levels, in a coastal submerged forest probably killed by rising sea -level, and in flood -plain oaks washed down the River ...

Use of luminescence dating in archaeology

With improvements in methodology and instrumentation, luminescence dating is becoming a much more useful chronometric tool in archaeology. Procedures for dating ceramics are relatively routine and their accuracy has been demonstrated in a number of studies. Research is aimed at applying ceramic dating in situations where other methods lack the direct dating ability of luminescence to resolve ch...