NSF Award
2330049
Archaeological wood provides a record of human existence ranging from technological development to economic and social organization. This doctoral dissertation grant focuses on wood which has been and remains a resource of fundamental importance to human societies past and present. As an organic product, wood is also an environmental archive which the science of dendrochronology has harnessed to reconstruct past environments dating back hundreds to thousands of years. This information can be most effectively utilized if the growth-location (provenance) of the trees in question is known. Multiple different approaches to determine the geographic origin of transported wood samples have been applied to archaeological wood, including the study of wood anatomical features, ancient DNA, and the chemical composition of wood, but all have faced drawbacks which limit their applicability. This project develops a new approach to provenance focused on the use of multiple isotopes to help constrain the area from which archaeological wood samples could have originated. As well as insight on past human societies and climates, this research is also applicable in the present through the development of a method which can help to identify illegally logged timber, and the future by contributing a long-term perspective on environmental change.<br/><br/>The research focuses on the isotopes of three specific elements: oxygen, sulfur, and strontium. The natural ratios of these isotopes vary geographically, meaning that specific locations have a particular isotopic signature which is also reflected in the wood of trees growing in that location. To understand how these signatures are distributed spatially, the doctoral student and colleagues develop isotope maps (isoscapes) by measuring the isotope values of trees from forest sites which have a known location. The same measurements can then be made on archaeological wood samples and compared to the isoscapes to determine which areas the trees could and could not have come from. The use of multiple isotopes is a key development on previous archaeological provenancing as it allows more chemical variation to be considered and a more precise growth-location to be identified. A key goal of this project is that the method developed can be applied to multiple wood species from diverse regions and time periods. The project conducts three case studies. The first considers pine samples whose origin could be from far afield. The second considers hemlock samples from New York State which were felled during the expansion of European settlement in the region. The third focuses on oak timbers which provide a 900-year palaeoclimate record. The three case studies capture a range of environmental, biological, and temporal factors, thereby allowing the development of a robust and versatile method which will help to realize the potential of archaeological wood.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
