Editorial Type: Research Articles
 | 
Online Publication Date: 01 Jan 2016

Dating Wooden Beams From the Grancia Monastic Abbey in Southern Italy

,
,
,
,
, and
Article Category: Research Article
Page Range: 15 – 22
DOI: 10.3959/1536-1098-72.01.15
Save
Download PDF

ABSTRACT

We present the results of a dendrochronological study carried out on timbers from the monastic abbey Grancìa of Brindisi di Montagna in Southern Italy. Our objective was to date cross-sections of oak (Quercus spp.) taken from structural timbers to determine the felling dates, the time span covered by the series and to evaluate whether the retrieved tree-ring data could be used to extend an existing living trees chronology of oak from Southern Italy.

Dendrochronological analyses were performed on samples collected from eight oak timbers in 2006 during the restoration of the abbey. Raw tree-ring series were crossdated and grouped into a floating chronology that was compared with an absolute reference chronology, specifically constructed from living Quercus pubescens (Willd.) trees, from the nearby Pollino National Park. Seven of eight samples could be absolutely dated in the early 19th, late 18th and mid late 17th Centuries, providing a chronology that reaches back to AD 1545.

Keywords: dendrochronology; Quercus spp.; structural timbers; building; Grancìa
Copyright: Copyright © 2016 by The Tree-Ring Society 2016
Figure 1.
Figure 1.

Profiles (left) and ground plan (right) of the Grancìa of Brindisi di Montagna (Potenza Province, Italy). Source: Antonio (1996).

Figure 2.
Figure 2.

The Grancìa of Brindisi di Montagna: overview (a) and detail (b) as it appeared in AD 2000, before restoration.

Figure 3.
Figure 3.

Standard tree-ring chronology of Quercus pubescens trees from the Pollino National Park, Southern Italy.

Figure 4.
Figure 4.

Tree-ring series from the internal crossdated samples separated in the floating chronologies F1 and F2. The innermost year of each sample corresponds to the arbitrary year number 1.

Figure 5.
Figure 5.

Dating results of wooden beams retrieved from the abbey of Brindisi di Montagna (Potenza, southern Italy). Brown bars indicate the time span covered by each sample, specified at the right of the figure; sample S6 could not be dated. The orange line shows the absolute chronology developed from living Q. pubescens trees (raw data).

Contributor Notes

*Corresponding author: tiziana.gentilesca@unibas.it; Telephone: +39 0971 205329; Mobile: +39 3297 777991
Received: 01 Sept 2014
Accepted: 31 Jul 2015
  • Download PDF