Dendrochronology
Also called: Tree-ring dating · Topic: Studying Indian History: Sources, Dating and Historiography · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Dendrochronology means dating by tree rings. Each year a tree adds one growth ring, and these rings are thick in good years and thin in bad years. By matching the pattern of rings in an old piece of wood with a known master sequence, scholars can find the exact year the tree was cut. It is very precise, but it needs long, unbroken ring records from one region. Such records are scarce in India, so the method is rarely used here.
Example
The American astronomer A.E. Douglass developed tree-ring dating in the early 20th century. He used it to date old wooden beams in Native American settlements in the south-west of the USA.
Don't confuse with
- Radiocarbon dating: it measures the decay of carbon in any once-living material and gives an approximate date. Tree-ring dating can give the exact year, but it works only on suitable wood.