ANT200H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter Week 7: Cosmic Ray, Varve, Curie Temperature
Document Summary
Best known method of direct absolute dating age of wood. Based on counting annual growth rings in cross-sections of cut trees. E. g. squier and e. h. davis determined the minimum age of mounds from the age of the oldest trees growing on them reasoned that if the oldest trees were 300, mound would at least be 300. Modern dendrochronology uses cross-linkage of tree-ring growth patterns among trees to extend a sequence of growth cycles into the past. Dendrochronology is critical in radiocarbon dating calibration. A. e. douglass was the first to compile long-term sequence of tree-ring growth patterns: aim was to relate past climate cycles (reflected in patterns of wider and narrower tree-ring growth) to sunspot cycles. Master dendrochronological sequence is built by linking older specimens beginning with living trees that overlap with archaeological samples by matching thick and thin rings. Tree-ring sequence can be projected back by matching patterns of rings.
