Pile-dwellings at Ljubljansko barje, Slovenia : 25 Years of dendrochronology

Velušček, Anton (author), Čufar, Katarina (author)

Interdisciplinary research on the pile-dwellings in the Ljubljansko barje, Slovenia, has been carried out, with brief interruptions, since their discovery in 1875. Since 1995 these efforts have been coordinated by the Institute of Archaeology of the ZRC SAZU. Systematic excavations and interdisciplinary research were carried out on prehistoric pile-dwelling sites, and dendrochronology was introduced as a basic method for determining the time frame of their existence. To this end, wood was collected from 16 sites for wood identification, dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating. Between 1995 and 2017, nearly 8800 samples of waterlogged wood, mainly from the piles the dwellings were built on, were collected and examined. Approximately 20% of the samples were oak (Quercus sp.) and ash (Fraxinus sp.), with more than 45 tree rings selected for dendrochronological study. Oak and ash tree-ring chronologies were established for most of the sites. Site chronologies that overlapped were merged into longer chronologies. Dating was carried out using 14C dating supported by a wiggle-matching procedure, and for the 4th millennium BC settlements with the help of teleconnection with German-Swiss reference chronology from sites approximately 500 km away north of the Alps. For the oldest settlement Resnikov prekop, which was already inhabited around 4600 BC, we could not establish a chronology due to the insufficient number of wood samples. The most important tree-ring chronologies of oak are: BAR-3330 (time span 3771–3330 BC) dated by dendrochronology, as well as SG-VO (3285–3109 ± 14 cal BC) and ZA-QUSP1 (2659–2417 ± 18 cal BC) both dated by radiocarbon wiggle-matching). BAR-3330 helped us date eight sites, SG-VO two sites, and ZA-QUSP1 three sites indicating the end of the Copper Age on the Ljubljansko barje. Slovenian oak chronologies from different periods have the potential to be teleconnected with those from other regions.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Krajinski park Ljubljansko barje (Slovenia), palafittes, dendrochronology, archaeological dating, Neolithic period, Copper Age
• Work type: Other
• Typology: 1.16 - Independent Scientific Component Part or a Chapter in a Monograph
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 221-231
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-171267
• UDC: 903.3(497.4)"634/636"
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-52780-7_13
• COBISS.SI-ID: 215648003
• Publication date in RUL: 21.08.2025

Record is a part of a monograph

• Title: Prehistoric wetland sites of Southern Europe : archaeology, dendrochronology, palaeoecology and bioarchaeology
• Editors: Ariane Ballmer, Albert Hafner, Willy Tinner
• Place of publishing: Bern
• Publisher: Springer
• ISBN: 978-3-0315-2779-1
• COBISS.SI-ID: 215647747
• Collection title: Natural science in archaeology
• Collection numbering: 1613-9712

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: Krajinski park Ljubljansko barje (Slovenija), kolišča, dendrokronologija, arheološko datiranje, neolitik, bakrena doba

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P4-0015
• Name: Les in lignocelulozni kompoziti

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0064
• Name: Arheološke raziskave