The Early Bronze Age dendrochronology of Sovjan (Albania): A first tree-ring sequence of the 24th – 22nd c. BC for the southwestern Balkans

Andrej Maczkowski,Matthias Bolliger,Ariane Ballmer,Maja Gori,Petrika Lera,Cécile Oberweiler,Sönke Szidat,Gilles Touchais,Albert Hafner

doi:10.1016/j.dendro.2021.125811

Abstract

The archaeological site of Sovjan is situated on the edge of the Korçë Basin, southeastern Albania. Its remarkably long and well investigated stratigraphic sequence, spanning from the Neolithic till the Iron Age, makes it an important type- and reference-site for the whole region. At different periods of prehistory it was located on the shores of the former Lake Maliq that once filled the Korçë Basin, but was definitely drained in the 1940′s. These permanent wetland conditions on the site allowed for a high degree of preservation of organic material, especially wood. Based on the current knowledge, level 8 of Sovjan contains the best-preserved wooden material of all the Early Bronze Age sites in the Balkans. Through the combination of dendrochronology and Bayesian modelling, i.e. wiggle-matching, a floating 269-years long tree-ring chronology was constructed, with an absolute end-date range falling between 2158 and 2142 cal BC (2σ). It was possible to establish that the dwellings and the trackway associated with the last occupation phase of level 8 are contemporaneous. Additionally, with the help of the new dendrochronological data and based on previously published charcoal dates, the absolute chronology of the subsequent level 7 is being narrowed-down to a range from the mid-22nd to mid-20th c. cal BC (2σ). The Early Bronze Age layers of the archaeological site of Sovjan, which are particularly pertinent for the 3rd millennium chronology of the southwestern Balkans, can now be dated with high precision for the first time and hence offer a major chronological reference point in the region.

Highlights

Near the modern village of Sovjan, in south eastern Albania, a prehistoric lakeside pile-dwelling was discovered in 1988 in the course of agricultural works
The macro- and microscopic analysis of the wood anatomical fea tures revealed that the majority of the examined samples (n = 30) are oak, while the remaining species are represented by Abies sp. (n = 1), Fraxinus sp. (n = 1) and Ulmus sp. (n = 2)
There are at least 12 different evergreen and deciduous oak species found among the contemporary arboreal flora of Albania, such as Quercus cerris, Quercus trojana, Quercus petrea and others, with Quercus frainetto being the most common one (Dida, 2003)

Summary

Introduction

Near the modern village of Sovjan (approx. 817 m.a.s.l), in south eastern Albania, a prehistoric lakeside pile-dwelling was discovered in 1988 in the course of agricultural works. BC, with gaps during the second half of the 4th mill. BC and the first half of the 3rd mill. Sovjan is situated around 3.5 km to the north from the village of Maliq, eponymous to another important prehistoric site that was excavated in the 1960s. The site of Sovjan was flooded by the waters of the ancient lake Maliq and definitely abandoned around 700 BC (Touchais et al, 2005; Fouache et al, 2010a, b). Due to this event and the subsequent waterlogging, the archaeological site of Sovjan offers remarkably well-preserved organic remains. In the course of the late Holocene, the former Lake Maliq was reduced to a marsh in the north western part of the plain of Korçe and was drained after 1946 during land reclamation activities (IUCN, 1992)

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Conclusion