Tree-ring dating and radiocarbon wiggle matching of Buddhist arhat statues at Heungkuksa temple in Namyangju, South Korea

Abstract

This paper reports the results of tree-ring dating and radiocarbon (AMS) wiggle matching of Buddhist statues stored at Heungkuksa Temple, Namyangju city, South Korea. A 121-yr composite chronology was made from the base panels of four Arhat statues, which were successfully dated using tree rings. The outermost ring was dated as A.D. 1538. The radiocarbon ages (measured by accelerator mass spectrometry, AMS) of eight single-year samples from a statue for wiggle matching fit the IntCal04 curve well, yielding a small error for the radiocarbon date (1528–1541cal AD) of 14 years within the 2σ range, a 95.4% confidence interval. This range included the true dendro-date, A.D. 1538. The results suggested that there was no significant offset in radiocarbon in the 16th century between central Korea and the regions the IntCal04 curve was made from: Europe (Ireland) and the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.A. The date of the Arhat statues in Heungkuksa Temple (A.D. 1538), obtained in this study, becomes the earliest one for Arhat statues in Korea.