Tree-Ring Materials as a Basis for Cultural Interpretations

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Tree-Ring Materials as a Basis for Cultural Interpretations" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Tree-ring, or dendroarchaeological data are justly celebrated for supporting the calendar dating of structures, sites, pottery types, and other archaeological things, the construction of archaeological chronologies, and the reconstruction of past climatic conditions. These data can also be used for “cultural interpretation,” an approach pioneered by William J. Robinson in his 1967 dissertation (this symposium’s namesake). Robinson analyzed attributes of tree-ring samples that were not inherently chronological—tree species, terminal ring characteristics, and technological indicators—to infer patterning in the behavior of the people who used the dated materials. His analyses benefited, of course, from the fact that the analyzed samples were in fact tree-ring dated. Papers in this symposium expand on Robinson’s approach, showing how patterning in a broader range of tree-ring evidence, drawn from a variety of cultural, temporal, and geographic contexts, can reflect and reveal patterning in a comparably broad range of past human behavior. As this symposium demonstrates, tree-ring data continue to be relevant to more than just chronological and climatic analysis in archaeology.

Other Keywords
Dating Techniques: Dendrochronology • North America: Northern Southwest United States • Europe: Western Europe

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)

  • Documents (9)
Documents
  • Are Big Data Better Data? A Historical Evaluation of Dinetah Navajo Tree-ring Data (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ronald Towner.

    This is an abstract from the "Tree-Ring Materials as a Basis for Cultural Interpretations" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The tremendous expansion of research and computing power in the past few decades has resulted in the creation of large databases in many fields, and archaeology is no exception. But what have we really learned? In the early 1990s, astronomers searched the skies with the most advanced technology of the time. They addressed such...

  • Dendrochronological Recognition of Two Traumatic Events in Navajo History: The Fearing Time/Long Walk and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeffrey Dean.

    This is an abstract from the "Tree-Ring Materials as a Basis for Cultural Interpretations" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over recent centuries the Navajo of the Southwestern U.S. have faced several traumatic periods that affected their culture and lives. Two of the most dynamic of these were the Fearing Time/Long Walk of the 1850s and 1860s and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. The Fearing Time resulted in the Navajo seeking refuge and safety in...

  • Dendrochronology at the Pile-Dwelling Site of Lucone D (Brescia, Italy): Chronology, Building Reconstruction and Wood-Use Practices (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicoletta Martinelli.

    This is an abstract from the "Tree-Ring Materials as a Basis for Cultural Interpretations" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Early Bronze Age Lucone D pile-dwelling settlement, a UNESCO World Heritage site component, is located in the basin of Lucone di Polpenazze del Garda, northern Italy. It has been excavated, by Museo Archeologico della Valle Sabbia from 2007 to today. Over 400 samples already subjected to dendrochronological analysis allow...

  • Extending the Use-Lives of Ancestral Pueblo Kivas and Great Kivas: A Tree-Ring Perspective (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard Ahlstrom.

    This is an abstract from the "Tree-Ring Materials as a Basis for Cultural Interpretations" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The archaeological concept of "architectural continuance” refers to the extended longevity of selected buildings and, especially, to the efforts made by those structures’ owners or caretakers to keep them in service over time. Archaeological evidence for the continuance of ancestral Pueblo kivas and great kivas shows how these...

  • Historically Contingent: Case Studies in the Interpretation of Tree-Ring Date Distributions (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Nash.

    This is an abstract from the "Tree-Ring Materials as a Basis for Cultural Interpretations" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. After 95 years of archaeological tree-ring dating in the American Southwest, there are now tens of thousands of tree-ring dates with which scholars can guide their analyses. When dealing with randomly distributed datasets, large samples sizes can mean more reliable statistical inferences. When dealing with spatially,...

  • In-Built Age in Archaeological Tree-Ring Samples and Behavioral Implications (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dakota Larrick.

    This is an abstract from the "Tree-Ring Materials as a Basis for Cultural Interpretations" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Age disparities between wood and charcoal and their archaeological contexts are a common problem in archaeological chronometry. With high precision dating techniques such as dendrochronology and wiggle-matching, even small age-offsets could affect the accuracy of chronological inferences and thus behavioral interpretations. In...

  • Revisiting Dendro Data at Betatakin and Keet Seel, Navajo National Monument (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katharine Williams.

    This is an abstract from the "Tree-Ring Materials as a Basis for Cultural Interpretations" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Tree-ring data have traditionally been used to study past climates and to establish detailed site construction sequences, particularly when paired with architectural analyses aimed at understanding wall bond-and-abutment patterns. In addition to climatological and temporal information, however, tree-ring data often indicate...

  • Tree-Ring Records of Pre-Reservation Ndée (Western Apache) Fire Stewardship and Niche Construction in East-Central Arizona 1600-1870 CE (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Roos.

    This is an abstract from the "Tree-Ring Materials as a Basis for Cultural Interpretations" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Southwest US, well-replicated fire histories suggest that abundant lightning and climate conditions drove frequent low-severity wildfires independent of human activities even as ethnography indicates that highly mobile, small groups of Western Apache (Ndée) foragers used fire in myriad land use contexts. Here we...

  • Tree-Rings Beyond Chronology: Puebloan Silviculture, Wood Procurement, and Wood Placement (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Thomas Windes.

    This is an abstract from the "Tree-Ring Materials as a Basis for Cultural Interpretations" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mindful identification and description of wood used in building construction suggests Ancestral and Historic Puebloans were discriminating consumers of arboreal resources. Using data gathered from Chacoan great houses and historic Pueblo buildings, we present evidence that indicates meaningful selection of wood species,...