Dendrochronological constructions of Norwegian conifer chronologies providing dating of historical material

Abstract

Tree-ring chronologies have been constructed for Scots pine (Pinus sylvetris L.) in Trøndelag, west Norway and south-east Norway back to AD 765 and AD 871, respectively. These have enabled the absolute dating of floating chronologies constructed on archaelogical material exavated in Trondheim, Bergen and Olso to the periods AD 798 to 1239, AD 882 to 1314 and AD 959 to 1213, respectively, and timber buildings in southern Norway from the present-day back to the early medieval period. Altogether 969 samples from archaeological excavations and 303 standing buildings had been dated in southern Norway by the end of 1998. The felling year of the date material goes back to the early-900's for the archaelogical material and the early-1100's for the standing buildings.

A chronology based on Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) from Trøndelag has been constructed from 1977 to 1351.

In northern Norway, material from recent Scots pine in Troms has enabled the construction of a chronology back to 1294. Samples from northern Norway have been dated with this chronology from Troms or by teleconnection with chronologies from Abisko in Sweden and Trøndelag.

The various regional chronologies in Norway have a matching tree-ring pattern with high t-values and sign tests at a 99.9% level of significance. The match between the Norwegian chronologies and chronologies constructed in Sweden also gives high t-values and sign tests at a 99.9% level og significance.