Dendrochronological dating and provenancing of timber used as foundation piles under historic buildings in The Netherlands

Abstract

In this study, we investigated whether dendrochronology can be used to determine the felling dates and origin of the trees that were used as wooden pile foundations under historic buildings. Dating and dendroprovenancing of the timber was possible for eight out of nine buildings. This is due mainly to the availability of newly constructed tree-ring chronologies of pine for the Netherlands and was of particular value in three of the investigated buildings where local timber had been used. Problems with the analysis of short time series from local timber are discussed. Detection of the felling date and origin of the trees used as piles allowed determination of the time lag between felling of the tree and implementation of the timber. Any possible effects of storage and/or transportation time on the susceptibility of the timber to bacterial degradation are considered.