DCCD project

The DCCD fits well into the development of dendrochronology in the Netherlands, which always has had an international orientation. In the Netherlands, tree-ring research began in the 1970’s in collaboration between ROB (now RACM) and Hamburg University (Eckstein et al. 1976). Tree-ring research became an established dating method in the Netherlands in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The first systematic endeavour in the Netherlands was directed at the construction of indigenous and exogenous average chronologies suited as a reference for dating (Jansma 1992, 1995).¹ During the next decade, in national as well as international endeavours local and regional chronologies were constructed and refined, and tested for their environmental signal.²

In 2003 the research of wood provenance was started, using combined data sets of the RACM and the RING Foundation and laboratories abroad (Van Daalen & Van Beek 2004). This approach proved successful (Vorst 2006; Visser 2007). As a result synthetic cultural-historical research is on the rise in Dutch dendrochronology. Current research is directed at the Roman Period (NWO/GW programme Arts and Crafts in Roman Ship Building) and makes use of dendrochronological data of RACM and RING as well as laboratories in Liege (B), Cologne and Trier (BRD). The National Research Agenda for Archaeology predicts important knowledge gain as this type of research is extended to other periods and cultural-historical topics, using even more extensive data sets (www.noaa.nl, chapter 3).

International cultural-dendrochronological studies are as yet rare on the European level. Dendro-chronology in the Netherlands is in an excellent position to promote such studies. Here, wood use during the last 1000 years was shaped by the scarcity of the material, import and by factors that influenced international trade, such as political and socio-economic developments, wars and even plagues (e.g., Jansma et al. 2004). The international provenance of wood in our more recent cultural heritage has directed dendrochronology in the Netherlands towards an international orientation. The DCCD fits perfectly into this tradition.

1. This research was funded by NWO/GW (contract number 280-151-040).
2. See Jansma 2002; Jansma et al. 2002, 2004; Jansma & Hanraets 2004; Kooistra et al. 2006; Leuschner et al. 2002, 2003; Poole et al. 2004; Sass-Klaassen 2004; Sass-Klaassen et al. 2004, 2005; Sass-Klaassen & Hanraets 2006; Van Daalen et al. 2003. This research was supported by NWO as well as the EU: NWO/GW contract number 250-51-072; NWO/ALW contract number 750-70-004; EU-contract numbers CV5V-CT94-0050 and ENV4-CT95-0127.