Dating Coastal Archaeological Wood From Pingusugruk (15th–17th CE), Northern Alaska: Preliminary Results and Methodological Perspectives in Dendrochronology - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue International Journal of Wood Culture Année : 2022

Dating Coastal Archaeological Wood From Pingusugruk (15th–17th CE), Northern Alaska: Preliminary Results and Methodological Perspectives in Dendrochronology

Résumé

Along the coasts of northern Alaska, in a treeless tundra environment, the primary wood resource for coastal populations is driftwood, a seasonal and exogenous resource carried by the major rivers of western North America. The potential of Alaskan coastal archaeological wood for tree-ring research was first assessed in the 1940s by archaeologist and tree-ring research pioneer J. L. Giddings. Despite his success, the difficulties of dendrochronological studies on driftwood and the development of radiocarbon dating during the 1950s resulted in the near-abandonment of dendrochronology to precisely date archaeological sites and build long sequences using archaeological wood in Alaska. In this study, we explored the possibilities and limitations of standard ring-width dendrochronological methods for dating Alaskan coastal archaeological wood. We focus on the site of Pingusugruk, a late Thule site (15th–17th CE) located at Point Franklin, northern Alaska. The preliminary results have been obtained from the standard dendrochronological analyses of 40 timber cross-sections from two semi-subterranean houses at Pingusugruk. We cross-correlated individual ring-width series and built floating chronologies between houses before cross-dating them with existing regional 1000-year-long master chronologies from the Kobuk and Mackenzie rivers (available on the International Tree-Ring Databank, ITRDB). Additional work on various dendro-archaeological collections using an interdisciplinary approach (geochemical analyses of oxygen isotopes and radiocarbon dating) will help develop and expand regional tree-ring chronologies and climatic tree-ring sequences in Alaska.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
ijwc-article-p89_5-1.pdf (3.19 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte

Dates et versions

hal-03891205 , version 1 (12-12-2022)

Licence

Paternité

Identifiants

Citer

Juliette Taïeb, Claire Alix, Glenn Juday, Anne Jensen, Valérie Daux, et al.. Dating Coastal Archaeological Wood From Pingusugruk (15th–17th CE), Northern Alaska: Preliminary Results and Methodological Perspectives in Dendrochronology. International Journal of Wood Culture, 2022, 2 (1-3), pp.89-116. ⟨10.1163/27723194-bja10006⟩. ⟨hal-03891205⟩
145 Consultations
27 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More