From: Antiquity | Date: June 1, 1996| Author: Taylor, Joan | COPYRIGHT 1996 Antiquity Publications, Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Dendrochronology, the dating of annual tree rings, has always promised to be the prehistorian's answer to the historian's king lists and coinage. From the initial study by the astronomer, A.E. Douglass, when he was searching for a tangible record of the seven-and eleven-year sun-spot cycles, to the present, the promise of this becoming a readily usable, absolute dating technique has eluded us in practice. Mike Baillie and his team at Queen's University, Belfast, have battled on to pe...