Newport medieval ship's timber dated to within months
January 2, 2024 5:19 PM Subscribe
Newport medieval ship's timber dated to within months using oxygen isotope dendrochronology - an advanced study of tree-ring data.
Experts used oxygen isotope dendrochronology to estimate when the timbers were harvested which has been called a revolutionary development in dating wood, like the advent of DNA technology in criminology.
"This process is only five to 10 years old and allows us to find answers today that we couldn't get before," said Prof Nigel Nayling, University of Wales Trinity St David's chair of archaeology.
So you can match the series of growth rings to growth rings that we already know the year of by comparing the very small ratio of heavy oxygen to regular oxygen in the wood, which is taken up from rainfall as the three grows. Turns out each growing season has a different oxygen isotope ratio because the ratio depends on a bunch of factors (where the rain comes from, from what altitude, at what temperature, how much of it has fallen and so on).
That's pretty cool.
posted by ssg at 7:47 PM on January 2 [2 favorites]
That's pretty cool.
posted by ssg at 7:47 PM on January 2 [2 favorites]
Fucking SCIENCE!
posted by Windopaene at 10:10 PM on January 2
posted by Windopaene at 10:10 PM on January 2
I love this! Being able to date literally every piece of wood in this ship or any other archaeological find is amazing. I do find the quote hilarious: "This process is only five to 10 years old..." You know someone is an archaeologist when there's a chronological margin of error on every time-based statement they make.
posted by blueskies at 9:31 AM on January 3 [1 favorite]
posted by blueskies at 9:31 AM on January 3 [1 favorite]
This is so cool. Thank you for the link. While starting to read the article I had questions about how the science works.
Here's a link to large book on the history of the subject that's pretty recent. Nothing else to add yet, but some interesting reading to do!
posted by Quack at 11:34 AM on January 3 [1 favorite]
Here's a link to large book on the history of the subject that's pretty recent. Nothing else to add yet, but some interesting reading to do!
posted by Quack at 11:34 AM on January 3 [1 favorite]
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Editing to add that this is my new favorite quote from a history article:
"It's really exciting, not just for ships and ship archaeology but for anything made of wood that's old."
posted by Suedeltica at 6:28 PM on January 2 [4 favorites]