Tom Windes and Southwestern Dendroarchaeology

Summary

Tom Windes is virtually unique among archaeologists for his appreciation of the range of dendrochronology’s contribution to archaeology and of the preservation crisis that afflicts the integrity of wooden elements in Southwestern archaeological sites of all ages. Tom’s interest in dendrochronology as more than dating led him to develop sampling tools, techniques, and protocols that maximize the behavioral and chronological information in dendroarchaeological wood. His recognition of the accelerated rate of deterioration of archaeological wood, due to both natural and human causes, persuaded him that as many as possible wooden elements should be recorded and sampled before their scientific potential was irreversibly compromised. Beginning his decades-long effort to sample archaeological wood with National Park Service sites, Tom scoured the Southwest, from the Rio Pecos to the Grand Canyon, for suitable material. Adhering to LTRR’s dictum to collect one sample from every wooden element and to his conviction that valuable chronological and behavioral information is in peril, Tom and his volunteers collected and documented thousands of samples that otherwise would have gone unstudied. The scale of this contribution is exemplified by the numbers of samples available before and after his activities and by numerous sophisticated analyses of these dendroarchaeological data.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Its About Time: Contributions in Honor of Thomas C. Windes   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage