Maryanne W. Newton

No systematic early bias to Mediterranean 14C ages: Radiocarbon measurements from tree-ring and air samples provide tight limits to age offsets

Existing data and theory do not support a recent assertion that upwelling of old carbon has led to systematically 100-300 yr too old radiocarbon ages for the Mediterranean region. Similarly, the prehistoric tree-ring record produced over 3 decades by the Aegean Dendrochronology Project is shown to provide robust, well-replicated data, contrary to a recent unfounded assertion. (super 14) C and dendrochronology provide an accurate and precise chronometric framework for the Mediterranean region.

Dendrochronology of submerged Bulgarian sites

During the late 1980s, 83 timber pilings off the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria at Kiten were sampled for dendrochronological research. According to the excavators, the pieces derived from house foundations associated with a now submerged Early Bronze Age habitation site. The wood, mostly oak, formed a 285-year tree-ring sequence, currently the longest Early Bronze Age oak chronology from the Balkans, with at l east four, possibly five, building phases identified. The four major phases are represented by at least 10 specimens each, and all construction episodes span a 64-year period. A limited number of specimens exhibited dates falling between these phases, suggesting that maintenance activities involving wood replacement were ongoing between phases. Nine 15-year-long ring sequences were wiggl e-matched to the decadal radiocarbon calibration curve of Stuiver and Becker. With an error of ±10 years, the resulting dates place the cutting of the trees for phase 1 at ca. 2778 BC and for the possible phase 5 at ca. 2715 BC. Kiten is only one of several submerged sites discovered by Bulgarian underwater archaeologists. In a discussion of flooding in the Black Sea basin, the submergence of a site occupied during the early 3rd mille nnium BC requires some explanation, considering that the date proposed by Ryan and Pitman for their inundation lies in the 6th millennium. An even earlier set of submerged timbers from Eneolithic Sozopol has now been dated and is here reported.