Dendrochronology

Event ID 1164024

Category Scientific Dating

Type Dendrochronology

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1164024

NT 86101 71047 After assessment of the assemblage, five oak timbers from Fast Castle were borrowed from NMS for the SESOD project. The timbers were small elements that came from a series of excavations carried out at Fast Castle between 1975 and 1984 by the Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society (Canmore ID: 59944) and had been conserved in PEG by NMS. This requires careful removal of PEG from surfaces to reveal the tree-ring patterns for measurement. Only timber K.2003.505 (NMS accession number) was dated, as SESOD sample FST505: it dates to the span AD 1425–1516 against Scandinavian imported timber in Scotland and is probably from southern Norway. It has 13 sapwood rings but is probably not at bark edge, indicating a felling date range of AD 1517–1533. The dendro-dating result accords well with information on Canmore that Fast Castle was razed in 1515 and rebuilt in 1521. The PEG was removed from a surface track on one other item K.2003.496 (FST496) revealing only 26 rings, too few for dating, and K.2003.496.502 appeared similar with around 40 rings. The other two items (K.2003.485 and 506) had more rings but the ring patterns were difficult to access without taking sub-samples. On the basis of their similarity to dated FST505 and the likelihood they too are imported oak, no further work was done, given the objective of SESOD was to find native oak. Full details of these and other SESOD results will be given in the project publication. See also the SESOD overview (p6).

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: Historic Environment Scotland

Coralie M Mills – Dendrochronicle

(Source: DES Volume 23)