Two decades of dendrochronology in the pile dwellings of the Ljubljansko barje, Slovenia

Katarina Čufar and Anton Velušček and Bernd Kromer (2013) Two decades of dendrochronology in the pile dwellings of the Ljubljansko barje, Slovenia. Dendro: Chronologie Typologie Ökologie: Festschrift für André Billamboz zum 65. Geburtstag . pp. 35-40.

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Abstract

Systematical excavations and interdisciplinary research have been performed in prehistoric pile dwelling sites of the Ljubljansko barje in Slovenia since 1995. Wood from 16 sites has been collected for wood identification, dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating. Over 8,400 samples of wood, mainly from the piles, have been collected and investigated. Approximately 20% of the samples were oak (Quercus sp.) and ash (Fraxinus sp.) with more than 45 tree-rings and were, according to our criteria, appropriate for dendrochronological investigation which enabled us to construct oak and ash tree-ring chronologies for most of the sites. A partial overlap of the chronologies and their 14C dating supported by a wiggle-matching procedure helped us to define their end dates from 3543±10 to 2417±18 cal BC. Evidence of extensive tree felling in the same years helped us to reconstruct building activities and to propose possible settlement gaps on the Ljubljansko barje. Cross-dating with 400 km distant German chronologies for the 4th and 3rd Millennium BC has proven unsuccessful. Wood investigations have revealed settlement patterns, enabled a reconstruction of past environment and human activities on the Ljubljansko barje and provided a new perspective for the absolute chronology of the Copper Age and the Early Bronze Age on the southeastern outskirts of the Alps.

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