New Scientist
Image: Rinet IT
A handful of oak-lined water wells built by Europe’s first farmers have earned the title of the world’s oldest surviving wooden architecture. Now, one of the earliest of the oak structures has been precision dated using the tree rings in the wood, and it provides evidence that Europe’s first farmers may also have been keen on recycling.
Trees in temperate latitudes generally gain a ring of new growth each year – wider ones in good growing seasons, thinner ones in bad. They are visible in cross-sections of the tree and leave a barcode-like pattern of growth through time.
By matching up distinct sections of that pattern on ancient wood samples from a given region, it is possible to create a tree ring record that goes further and further back in time. In some regions, the timeline stretches back thousands of years.
