We made dendrochronological analysis in the BerkoviŽ wine cellar in the village OreŽje, Bizeljsko, Slovenia. The wine cellar belongs to the oldest buildings of rural architecture in Slovenia and one of the beams contains the carved number 1722 presumably indicating the year when the object was built. The aim of the study was to date the timber by means of dendrochronology and check if the carved number indicates the year when the wine cellar was built. We collected cores from ten beams made of oak (Quercus spp.) in the walls of the oldest part of the building. We cross-dated the tree-ring series and dated all investigated beams. Based on dating of the outermost tree-rings of two beams which were the only ones which contained partly preserved sapwood, we concluded that the timber for the beams was harvested around 1790. The dating of the outermost tree-ring of the beam with the engraved number was 1717. Since the beam contained no sapwood, the tree for this beam was harvested at least 15 years after the given year. The study therefore showed that the age of the object cannot be exactly determined based on the engraved number. The main part of the wine cellar was built around 1790, i.e. 68 years later than expected.
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