Computer-Matched Radiocarbon Dates of Floating Tree-Ring Series

Abstract

The absolute time of growth of a floating tree-ring series is determined by computer, by first fitting a curve to the¹⁴C ages of tree-ring dated wood and then by matching the¹⁴C ages of the floating tree-ring series to that curve. The results obtained by this matching procedure are given here for five floating European oak chronologies for which¹⁴C dates have been published previously by Suess (1978). Three of these five floating series have been linked together dendrochronologically. There now remain three floating series covering a 4000-year time span from 4820 BC to 830 BC. Their¹⁴C dates, matched by computer to the bristlecone pine chronology, provide a possibility of obtaining precise ages of oak wood series from Neolithic sites in Switzerland and South Germany by dendrochronologically cross-dating with the calibrated master chronologies.