Reconstructing the oaks’ growth patterns in Greece with the use of historical timber: Case studies from Western Peloponnese

Abstract

Southern Greece is a region where available oak reference chronologies are still missing, making dendroarchaeology and dating of historical buildings rather challenging, if not impossible. In the current study we performed wood identification and dendroarchaeological analysis on timber from three historical buildings: the castles of Androusa and Koroni and the Church of Agios Dimitrios, in Western Peloponnese. The three monuments represent buildings of different uses covering different periods, but also sharing a common characteristic: oak was the only timber used in their construction, while the number of preserved timber elements is very limited. A dendroarchaeological examination of these three historical buildings, together with radiocarbon and wiggle-matching analysis, provided valuable chronological information for the local archaeologists, historians, and other scientists. Application of dendrochronological techniques has helped place the three buildings under study into the Ottoman period. Our results also show that timber was acquired most probably from local non-managed forests, which suggests that oak forests were present in the broader area at least from the late 15th to the first half of the 18th centuries. The discordance between dendrochronological and radiocarbon dates in one of the three cases highlights the need for further exploration of the study area through a combined implementation of both dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating analyses in order to develop well-replicated local oak chronologies. Our study also shows that dendroarchaeology can contribute significantly to the cultural and landscape history of Western Peloponnese even with an examination of limited number of preserved timber elements from historical buildings.