We present investigations of archaeological wood from the pile-dwelling site of Dušanovo on Ljubljansko barje (the Ljubljana Marshes). During rescue excavations in 2013, archaeologists took samples from 210 piles. We investigated the waterlogged archaeological wood using an established method which involves wood processing, macroscopic or microscopic wood identification, measuring, and dendrochronological research. Ash wood (Fraxinus sp.) was dominant, representing 78% of the collected archaeological wood, followed by poplar (Populus sp.) with 7%, maple (Acer sp.) with 4%, alder (Alnus glutinosa) with 3%, and hornbeam (Carpinus betulus), willow (Salix sp.), oak (Quercus sp.), and elm (Ulmus sp.), each representing 2%. The selection of wood species suggests that most of the wood was felled in a flood-prone terrain in the vicinity of the settlement. 64 samples of ash piles had 45 or more tree rings and were, by established criteria, suitable for dendrochronological analysis. Tree-ring series of 15 samples were cross-dated, integrated into the chronology of DU-FRSP1 and dated with the chronology of the pile dwelling of Črni Graben to the year 2491 (% 18) cal. BC. The results indicate that Dušanovo was inhabited at the end of the Copper Age, at the same time as the settlements of Črni graben, Založnica and Parte. The same period of tree felling indicates that the settlements of Dušanovo and the nearby Črni Graben might have been a part of the same settlement. The piles were between 5 and 18 cm in diameter, with more than 80% of them between 7 and 12.5 cm in diameter. Less than a half (40%) of the piles had tree-ring widths of 1-2 mm. The piles had between 11 and 156 tree rings, and nearly a half of them had fewer than 30 tree rings, indicating the approximate age of the trees at the time of felling. Willow trees were the youngest, followed by alder, poplar, oak, maple, elm and hornbeam. In general, ash had the most tree rings, most likely due to pruning (cutting branches for animal consumption). We have observed and studied the traces of pruning that are reflected in a smaller increment and a modified structure of wood in 10 samples of ash.
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