Tree-Rings, Kings, and Old World Archaeology and Environment: Papers Presented in Honor of Peter Ian Kuniholm

The study of tree-rings (dendrochronology) provides a key resource for determining dates for archaeological and other contexts where wood/charcoal is present (and so cultural chronology), and for investigating past climate and environment. In the central and east Mediterranean region Peter Ian Kuniholm is synonymous with dendrochronology and dendroarchaeology. He led the creation of numerous tree-ring chronologies for the region (from forests, buildings, archaeological sites), and demonstrated the enormous potential and power of dendrochronology to a range of topics. This rich collection of papers by an international authorship, deriving from a conference held at Cornell University in honor of Peter Kuniholm, provides wide-ranging and up-to-date discussions and assessments on a number of key topics concerning the chronology and environment of the central to east Mediterranean and Near East and the field of dendrochronology. This includes controversy - with a set of papers addressing the current debate over the dating of the great Santorini/Thera volcanic eruption in the mid second millennium BC; and famous sites and finds, including a report on the absolute dating of the extraordinary Uluburun ship of the late 14th century BC, and papers concerned with the dating and interpretation of important sites and topics such as Gordion, Akrotiri on Thera, the rise and fall of the Hittite empire, and the Anatolian Iron Age. Other papers explore the history, scope and potential of dendrochronology in the Mediterranean region. The debate over what happened around AD536-540 gets a look in also, along with papers exploring the relevance of dendrochemical approaches to identifying past environmental events (such as major volcanic eruptions), and a review of work on timberline dynamics and climate change in Greece.

Table of Contents

Foreword (A. Colin Renfrew)
Preface and Acknowledgments
Contributors to the Volume
Bibliography of Peter Ian Kuniholm

Peter Kuniholm's Dendro Time (Fritz H. Schweingruber)
Perspective: Archaeology, History, and Chronology from Penn to the Present and Beyond (James Muhly)
Excursions into Absolute Chronology (M. G. L. Baillie)
One Hundred Years of Dendroarchaeology: Dating, Human Behavior, and Past Climate (Jeffrey S. Dean)
The Absolute Dating of Wasserburg Buchau: A Long Story of Tree-ring Research (A. Billamboz)
Is there a Separate Tree-ring Pattern for Mediterranean Oak? (Tomasz Wazny)
Dendrochronological Research at Rosslauf (Bressanone, Italy) (Maria Ivana Pezzo)
The Development of the Regional Oak Tree-ring Chronology from the Roman Sites in Celje (Slovenia) and Sisak (Croatia) (Aleksandar Durman, Andrej Gaspari, Tom Levanic, Matjaz Novsak)
Dendroclimatology in the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean Region (Ramzi Touchan and Malcolm K. Hughes)
A 924-year Regional Oak Tree-ring Chronology for North Central Turkey (Carol B. Griggs, Peter I. Kuniholm, Maryanne W. Newton, Jennifer D. Watkins, and Sturt W. Manning)
Dendrochronology on Pinus nigra in the Taygetos Mountains, Southern Peloponnisos (Robert Brandes)
Could Absolutely Dated Tree-ring Chemistry Provide a Means to Dating the Major Volcanic Eruptions of the Holocene? (Charlotte L. Pearson and Sturt W. Manning)
Dendrochemistry of Pinus sylvestris Trees from a Turkish Forest (D. K. Hauck and K. Unlu)
Neutron Activation Analysis of Dendrochronologically Dated Trees (K. Unlu, P. I. Kuniholm, D. K. Hauck, N. O. Cetiner, and J. J. Chiment)
Third Millennium BC Aegean Chronology: Old and New Data from the Perspective of the Third Millennium AD (Ourania Kouka)
Middle Helladic Lerna: Relative and Absolute Chronologies (Sofia Voutsaki, Albert J. Nijboer, and Carol Zerner)
Absolute Age of the Uluburun Shipwreck: A Key Late Bronze Age Time-Capsule for the East Mediterranean (Sturt W. Manning, Cemal Pulak, Bernd Kromer, Sahra Talamo, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, and Michael Dee)
How About the Pace of Change for a Change of Pace? (Jeremy B. Rutter)
Archaeologists and Scientists: Bridging the Credibility Gap (Elizabeth French and Kim Shelton)
Central Lydia Archaeological Survey: Documenting the Prehistoric through Iron Age periods (Christina Luke and Christopher H. Roosevelt)
The Chronology of Phrygian Gordion (Mary M. Voigt)
The End of Chronology: New Directions in the Archaeology of the Central Anatolian Iron Age (Geoffrey D. Summers)
The Rise and Fall of the Hittite Empire in the Light of Dendroarchaeological Research (Andreas Muller-Karpe)
Aegean Absolute Chronology: Where did it go wrong? (Christos Doumas)

The Thera Debate
Cold Fusion: The Uneasy Alliance of History and Science (Malcolm H. Wiener)
Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627-1600 BC: Further Discussion (Walter L. Friedrich, Bernd Kromer, Michael Friedrich, Jan Heinemeier, Tom Pfeiffer, and Sahra Talamo)
Dating the Santorini/Thera Eruption by Radiocarbon: Further Discussion (AD 2006-2007) (Sturt W. Manning, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Walter Kutschera, Thomas Higham, Bernd Kromer, Peter Steier, and Eva M. Wild)
Thera Discussion (Malcolm H. Wiener, Walter L. Friedrich, and Sturt W. Manning)

This is an excellent book, a fitting testament to Kuniholm’s contribution to our understanding of Aegean prehistory, and a rich source of interest and information for archaeologists, dendrochronologists and climatologists. This book contains papers that demand attention; I greatly recommend it.' (John Waterhouse The Holocene, vol 20, No. 7, 2010)

Overall, the work captures the current status of several lines of research and lays the groundwork for future investigations. Several of the papers are likely to be mandatory reading for scholars and students in their respective fields. Peter Ian Kuniholm should be proud that this volume bears his name, as it is an appropriate reflection of the impact of his work.' (Pearce Paul Creasman & Bryant Bannister, Univeristy of Arizona Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, Vol 3:1, 2011)