Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-fx4k7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-19T13:43:22.893Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tree-Ring Dating of Baldcypress and the Potential for Millennia-Long Chronologies in the Southeast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David W. Stahle ,
Edward R. Cook  and
James W. C. White
David W. Stahle
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701
Edward R. Cook
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964
James W. C. White
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The tree-ring dating of baldcypress has been achieved in the southeastern United States, and the first 500 to 600 year long baldcypress chronologies have been developed from remnant stands of old-growth trees. An 800 year long cypress tree-ring chronology based on living trees and extended with long dead submerged logs has recently been dated, demonstrating the feasibility for very long chronology extension using progressively older sources of preserved cypress wood from old-growth trees, historic buildings, prehistoric archaeological sites, and natural deposits of submerged and buried logs and stumps. The longevity, climate sensitivity, and excellent preservation of ancient baldcypress wood make this species the only realistic prospect for millennia-long tree-ring chronologies extending to the mid-holocene in the Southeast, with important potential applications to the tree-ring dating of prehistoric archaeological sites, paleoclimatic reconstruction, and the calibration of independent dating methods.

Information

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , October 1985 , pp. 796 - 802
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References Cited

Baillie, M. G. L. 1982 Tree-Ring Dating and Archaeology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Bartram, W. 1791 Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida. In The Travels of William Bartram, edited by Harper, Francis. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Becker, B., and Delorme, A. 1978 Oak Chronologies for Central Europe and Their Extension from Medieval to Prehistoric Times. In Dendrochronology in Europe, edited by Fletcher, J., pp. 59–64. British Archaeological Research Series, No. 51. Google Scholar
Bell, R. E. 1951 Dendrochronology at the Kincaid Site. In Kincaid: A Prehistoric Illinois Metropolis, edited by Cole, F. C., pp. 233–292. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Bibbins, A. 1905 The Buried Cypress Forests of the Upper Chesapeake. Records of the Past 4(2): 47–53. Records of the Past Exploration Society, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Bitvinskas, T. T. 1982 European Russia. In Climate from Tree-Rings, edited by Hughes, M. K., Kelly, P. M., Pilcher, J. R., and Marche, V. C. La Jr., pp. 150–151. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Bowers, L. J. 1973 Tree-Ring Dating of the Baldcypress in the Mississippi Valley. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Biology, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro.Google Scholar
Brown, C., and Montz, G. 1983 Baldcypress: The Tree Unique, The Wood Eternal. Ms. in possession of the second author, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans, Louisiana.Google Scholar
Carpenter, W. 1839 Accounts of the Bituminization of Wood in the Human Era. American Journal of Science 36: 118–124.Google Scholar
Delcourt, H. R., Delcourt, P. A., and Webb, T. III 1983a Dynamic Plant Ecology: The Spectrum of Vegetational Change in Space and Time. Quaternary Science Reviews 1: 153–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delcourt, H. R., Delcourt, P. A., and Spiker, E. C. 1983b A 12, 000-Year Record of Forest History from Cahaba Pond, St. Clair County, Alabama. Ecology 64: 874–887.Google Scholar
Douglass, A. E. 1919 Climatic Cycles and Tree-Growth I: A Study of the Annual Rings of Trees in Relation to Climate and Solar Activity. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication No. 289, vol. 1, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Eckstein, D. 1982 Europe. In Climate from Tree-Rings, edited by Hughes, M. K., Kelly, P. M., Pilcher, J. R., and La Marche, V. C. Jr., pp. 142–148. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Ferguson, C. W., and Graybill, D. A. 1983 Dendrochronology of Bristlecone Pine: A Progress Report. Radiocarbon 25: 287–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flint, R. F. 1971 Glacial and Quaternary Geology. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Fowells, H. A. 1965 Silvics of Forest Trees of the United States. Agriculture Handbook No. 271, USDA Forest Service, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Fritts, H. C., Biasing, T. J., Hayden, B. P., and Kutzbach, J. E. 1971 Multivariate Techniques for Specifying Tree-Growth and Climate Relationships and for Reconstructing Anomalies in Paleoclimate. Journal of Applied Meterology 10: 845–864.Google Scholar
Grissinger, E. H., Murphey, J. B., and Little, W. C. 1982 Late-Quaternary Valley Fill Deposits in North-Central Mississippi. Southeastern Geology 23: 147–162.Google Scholar
Harlow, W. M., Harrar, E. S., and White, F. M. 1979 Textbook of Dendrology. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Hawley, F. 1941 Tree-Ring Analysis and Dating in the Mississippi Drainage. University of Chicago Publications in Anthropology, Occasional Paper 2. Google Scholar
Kandare, R. P. 1983 A Contextual Study of Mississippian Dugout Canoes: A Research Design for the Moundville Phase. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
Kolb, C. R., and Van Lopik, J. R. 1966 Depositional Environments of the Mississippi River Deltaic Plain— Southeastern Louisiana. In Deltas, edited by Shirley, M. L. and Ragsdale, J. A., pp. 17—61. Houston Geological Society, Houston.Google Scholar
Kuniholm, P. I., and Striker, C. L. 1983 Dendrochronological Investigations in the Aegean and Neighboring Regions, 1977-1982. Journal of Field Archaeology 10: 411–420.Google Scholar
Lyell, C. 1849 A Second Visit to the United States of North America. John Murray, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattoon, W. R. 1915 The Southern Cypress. United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin 272. Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
McGahey, S. O. 1974 A Prehistoric Dugout Canoe. Mississippi Archaeologist 9: 4–5.Google Scholar
Mills, G. B. 1978 Of Men and Rivers. U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, Mississippi.Google Scholar
Moore, J. H. 1967 Andrew Brown and Cypress Lumbering in the Old Southwest. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.Google Scholar
Pilcher, J. R., Hillam, J., Baillie, M. G. L., and Pearson, G. W. 1977 A Long Subfossil Tree-Ring Chronology from the North of Ireland. New Phytologist 79: 713–729.Google Scholar
Porter, J. W. 1969 The Mitchell Site and Prehistoric Exchange Systems at Cahokia: A. D. 1000 ± 300. In Explorations into Cahokia Archaeology. Illinois Archaeological Survey, Inc. Bulletin 7.Google Scholar
Robinson, W. J. 1976 Tree-Ring Dating and Archaeology in the American Southwest. Tree-Ring Bulletin 36: 9–20.Google Scholar
Sears, P. B., and Couch, G. C. 1932 Microfossils in an Arkansas Peat. Ohio Journal of Science 32: 63–68.Google Scholar
Smith, A. G., and Pilcher, J. R. 1973 Radiocarbon Dates and Vegetational History of the British Isles. New Phytologist 72: 903–914.Google Scholar
Stahle, D. W. 1978 Tree-Ring Dating of Selected Arkansas Log Buildings. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
Stahle, D. W. 1979 Tree-Ring Dating of Historic Buildings in Arkansas. Tree-Ring Bulletin 39: 1–28.Google Scholar
Stahle, D. W., and Hehr, J. G. 1984 Tree-Ring Chronologies for the Southcentral United States. Final Technical Report Submitted to the National Science Foundation, Climate Dynamics Program, Grant No. ATM-8120615.Google Scholar
Stahle, D. W., and Wolfman, D. 1985 The Potential for Archaeological Tree-Ring Dating in Eastern North America. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 8, edited by Schiffer, M. B., pp. 279–302. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Stokes, M. A., and Smiley, T. L. 1968 Introduction to Tree-Ring Dating. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Walker, W. M. 1936 The Troyville Mounds, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 113. U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Watts, W. A. 1971 Postglacial and Interglacial Vegetation History of Southern Georgia and Central Florida. Ecology 52: 676–690.Google Scholar
Whitehead, D. R. 1965 Palynology and Pleistocene Phytogeography of Unglaciated Eastern North America. In The Quaternary of the United States, edited by Wright, H. E. Jr., and Frey, D. G., pp. 417–432. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Wolfman, D. 1982 Archaeomagnetic Dating in Arkansas and the Border Areas of Adjacent States. In Arkansas Archaeology in Review, edited by Jeter, M. and Trubowitz, N.. Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series No. 15, Fayetteville, Arkansas.Google Scholar
Wolfman, D. 1984 Geomagnetic Dating Methods in Archaeology. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 7, edited by Schiffer, M. B., pp. 363–458. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Yapp, C. J., and Epstein, S. 1977 Climatic Implications of D/H Ratios of Meteoric Water Over North America (9500-22, 000 B. P.) as Inferred from Ancient Wood Cellulose C-H Hydrogen. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 34: 333–350.Google Scholar