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83-695: Por-Bazhyn occupies a small island in Lake Tere-Khol, about 1,300 m (4,300 ft) above sea level in the Sengelen mountains of southern Siberia. The location is 8 km (5.0 mi) west of the village of Kungurtuk in the southeast of the Republic of Tuva (Russian Federation), close to the Russian border with Mongolia. The walls of the site enclose a rectangular area of 215 m × 162 m (705 ft × 531 ft), oriented east–west and covering almost

166-539: A 2 t 3 k v ρ 1 3 ( c 4 + c 1 e − a 1 t + c 2 e − a 2 t ) 2 3 {\displaystyle \Delta L(t)=-{\frac {c_{1}e^{-a_{1}t}+c_{2}e^{-a_{2}t}}{3k_{v}\rho ^{\frac {1}{3}}\left(c_{4}+c_{1}e^{-a_{1}t}+c_{2}e^{-a_{2}t}\right)^{\frac {2}{3}}}}} where c 1 , c 2 , and c 4 are some coefficients,

249-535: A 1 and a 2 are positive constants. The formula is useful for correct approximation of samples data before data normalization procedure. The typical forms of the function Δ L ( t ) of annual growth of wood ring are shown in the figures. Dendrochronology allows specimens of once-living material to be accurately dated to a specific year. Dates are often represented as estimated calendar years B.P. , for before present, where "present" refers to 1 January 1950. Timber core samples are sampled and used to measure

332-590: A BBC reporter. To make the documentary, Kruglov and his film crew travelled on the backs of horses and reindeer to reach the places in Tuva which Vainshtein had visited and researched. During the many months of filming, Kruglov also managed to reach a mysterious location high up in the taiga of the eastern Sayan Mountains , which Vainshtein had once tried but failed to visit: the Arshan-Tschoigan mineral springs, reputed to have healing powers. In 2000 Vainshtein

415-591: A 1,150 mile long tributary of the great Yenisei River , to visit and research the small Nordic Kets people s' cultural roots as well as the circumstances of their life. He found that the Kets' culture was threatened with extinction. Consequently, he wrote a respective report to the Institute , stressing the Kets’ poor living conditions and suggesting federal aid. This report was considered to discredit Russia's ethnic politics , and he

498-488: A German professor of forest pathology, wrote a series of papers on the anatomy and ecology of tree rings. In 1892, the Russian physicist Fedor Nikiforovich Shvedov  [ ro ; ru ; uk ] (1841–1905) wrote that he had used patterns found in tree rings to predict droughts in 1882 and 1891. During the first half of the twentieth century, the astronomer A. E. Douglass founded the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at

581-480: A check in radiocarbon dating to calibrate radiocarbon ages . New growth in trees occurs in a layer of cells near the bark. A tree's growth rate changes in a predictable pattern throughout the year in response to seasonal climate changes, resulting in visible growth rings. Each ring marks a complete cycle of seasons , or one year, in the tree's life. As of 2023, securely dated tree-ring data for Germany and Ireland are available going back 13,910 years. A new method

664-565: A degree in history as Dr. Sc. with his thesis about the origins and culture of the Tuvan people, and was later appointed professor at his Institute. At an Anthropology Congress in Moscow in 1964, Sevyan Vainshtein was approached by another participant, the world-renowned explorer Thor Heyerdahl of Norway , who had asked him for a separate discussion, requesting Vainshtein to tell him more about his expeditions and to let him read his diaries. The two had

747-498: A dominant central building, with that of the ‘ideal Buddhist monastery’, with living quarters along the inner perimeter of the enclosure walls. Using the latest update of the palace being built in 777, the excavators suggest that this was a summer palace built by Khagan Bögü which, after damage to the palace by an earthquake and the Khagan's conversion to Manichaeism , was converted into a Manichaean monastery. Following his death in 780 and

830-401: A gradual replacement of wooden panels by canvas as the support for paintings, which means the technique is less often applicable to later paintings. In addition, many panel paintings were transferred onto canvas or other supports during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The dating of buildings with wooden structures and components is also done by dendrochronology; dendroarchaeology is

913-526: A long conversation, during which Heyerdahl also reflected about his own expeditions and research. After a few days he visited Vainshtein again, returning his diaries, and strongly suggested to him to one day write a book about his personal experiences along with interesting details about his life on expeditions into Central Asia, aimed not only at the science community but also at the general public interested in foreign peoples and cultures. In saying goodbye, Heyerdahl remarked to him with emphasis: “Don’t postpone

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996-501: A much greater number have been analysed. A portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots in the National Portrait Gallery, London was believed to be an eighteenth-century copy. However, dendrochronology revealed that the wood dated from the second half of the sixteenth century. It is now regarded as an original sixteenth-century painting by an unknown artist. On the other hand, dendrochronology was applied to four paintings depicting

1079-645: A national state of their own today, the modern Uyghurs derive an essential element of their cultural identity from the past greatness of the Uyghur Khaganate. The native Tuvinian Sergey Shoygu , then Minister for Emergencies of the Russian Federation, was chairman of the Por-Bazhyn Fortress Foundation which provided the funding for the fieldwork. In August 2007, he visited the excavations together with Vladimir Putin , then Prime Minister of

1162-470: A one- or two-chamber building of similar lay-out and building method. Early dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating studies indicated that the ‘fortress’ was built between AD 770 and 790. The excavators point out that this was in the reign of Uyghur Bögü Qaghan , successor of Moyanchur, therefore Por-Bazhyn cannot have been the palace mentioned in the Selenga inscription. The date of the palace's construction

1245-402: A range rather than an exact date. However, for a precise date of the death of the tree a full sample to the edge is needed, which most trimmed timber will not provide. It also gives data on the timing of events and rates of change in the environment (most prominently climate) and also in wood found in archaeology or works of art and architecture, such as old panel paintings . It is also used as

1328-498: A reference for subsequent European naturalists. In the U.S., Alexander Catlin Twining (1801–1884) suggested in 1833 that patterns among tree rings could be used to synchronize the dendrochronology of various trees and thereby to reconstruct past climates across entire regions. The English polymath Charles Babbage proposed using dendrochronology to date the remains of trees in peat bogs or even in geological strata (1835, 1838). During

1411-475: A relative internal chronology, they cannot be dendro-matched with the main Holocene absolute chronology. However, 14C analyses performed at high resolution on overlapped absolute and floating tree-rings series enable one to link them almost absolutely and hence to extend the calibration on annual tree rings until ≈13 900 cal yr BP." Herbchronology is the analysis of annual growth rings (or simply annual rings) in

1494-587: A section against another chronology (tree-ring history) whose dates are known. A fully anchored and cross-matched chronology for oak and pine in central Europe extends back 12,460 years, and an oak chronology goes back 7,429 years in Ireland and 6,939 years in England . Comparison of radiocarbon and dendrochronological ages supports the consistency of these two independent dendrochronological sequences. Another fully anchored chronology that extends back 8,500 years exists for

1577-424: A small part of the radius of the trunk. Consequently, dating studies usually result in a terminus post quem (earliest possible) date, and a tentative date for the arrival of a seasoned raw panel using assumptions as to these factors. As a result of establishing numerous sequences, it was possible to date 85–90% of the 250 paintings from the fourteenth to seventeenth century analysed between 1971 and 1982; by now

1660-601: A teacher of the German language . Sevyan Vainshtein had concluded his study of ethnology at the University of Moscow in 1950, while in 1947 he had been honored with a High University Award for his religious-philosophical work about the Ishmaelites . During his studies, Vainshtein participated in an expedition in Siberia in 1948 to the river Podkamennaya Tunguska (Substone Tunguska),

1743-407: A two-part central structure and two flanking galleries. The two buildings of the central structure, one behind the other, stood on square platforms which had been built up of clay layers and faced with bricks which were coated with lime plaster. The larger building was subdivided by wattle-and-daub panels into two halls and a series of smaller rooms. Walls and panels were covered with lime plaster which

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1826-417: A wide ring, while a drought year may result in a very narrow one. Direct reading of tree ring chronologies is a complex science, for several reasons. First, contrary to the single-ring-per-year paradigm, alternating poor and favorable conditions, such as mid-summer droughts, can result in several rings forming in a given year. In addition, particular tree species may present "missing rings", and this influences

1909-556: A work that is not only important for Tuvan science but also for the history of art of many other peoples of Central Asia and South Siberia . Vainshtein wrote more than 300 scientific publications, including numerous monographs, of which his main works are: In his 1971 publication entitled "The Problem of the Origins of Reindeer Herding in Eurasia, Part II: The Role of the Sayan Center in

1992-631: Is a term used to designate a layer of deformed, collapsed tracheids and traumatic parenchyma cells in tree ring analysis. They are formed when air temperature falls below freezing during a period of cambial activity. They can be used in dendrochronology to indicate years that are colder than usual. Dates from dendrochronology can be used as a calibration and check of radiocarbon dating . This can be done by checking radiocarbon dates against long master sequences, with Californian bristle-cone pines in Arizona being used to develop this method of calibration as

2075-427: Is based on measuring variations in oxygen isotopes in each ring, and this 'isotope dendrochronology' can yield results on samples which are not suitable for traditional dendrochronology due to too few or too similar rings. Some regions have "floating sequences", with gaps which mean that earlier periods can only be approximately dated. As of 2024, only three areas have continuous sequences going back to prehistoric times,

2158-409: Is more uniform (complacent). In addition, some genera of trees are more suitable than others for this type of analysis. For instance, the bristlecone pine is exceptionally long-lived and slow growing, and has been used extensively for chronologies; still-living and dead specimens of this species provide tree-ring patterns going back thousands of years, in some regions more than 10,000 years. Currently,

2241-426: Is the science of determining past climates from trees primarily from the properties of the annual tree rings. Other properties of the annual rings, such as maximum latewood density (MXD) have been shown to be better proxies than simple ring width. Using tree rings, scientists have estimated many local climates for hundreds to thousands of years previous. Dendrochronology has become important to art historians in

2324-449: Is width of annual ring, t is time (in years), ρ is density of wood, k v is some coefficient, M ( t ) is function of mass growth of the tree. Ignoring the natural sinusoidal oscillations in tree mass, the formula for the changes in the annual ring width is: Δ L ( t ) = − c 1 e − a 1 t + c 2 e −

2407-682: The Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow . His father, Israel Vainshtein, had been a professor of philosophy at the Avia Institute in Moscow . In 1936, during Stalin 's rulership of the Soviet Union , he was accused of spying for the Germans. After a two-year prison stay, he was shot to death, but was rehabilitated posthumously. Sevyan's mother was from Riga ; after her marriage in Russia she became

2490-583: The Soviet Union 's map. In Tuva's capital city Kyzyl , Vainshtein worked as scientific director at the State Museum from 1950 to 1954. Following that period he was asked to work in the same capacity at the Tuvan Institute for History, Language and Literature. During this time he also met the Russian music pedagogue Alevtina (Alla) Petrova, who was teaching in Tuva the Russian classical music heritage, and

2573-583: The State Oriental Museum , and Moscow State University . Since the end of the 19th century, Por-Bazhyn has been linked to the Uyghurs because of its location, the date of finds from it, and the similarity of its lay-out to the palace complex of Karabalgasun , the capital of the Uyghur Khaganate . Vajnstejn identified Por-Bazhyn as the ‘palace .. at the well’ built, according to the runic inscription on

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2656-471: The University of Arizona . Douglass sought to better understand cycles of sunspot activity and reasoned that changes in solar activity would affect climate patterns on earth, which would subsequently be recorded by tree-ring growth patterns ( i.e. , sunspots → climate → tree rings). Horizontal cross sections cut through the trunk of a tree can reveal growth rings, also referred to as tree rings or annual rings . Growth rings result from new growth in

2739-537: The Vistula region via ports of the Hanseatic League . Oak panels were used in a number of northern countries such as England , France and Germany . Wooden supports other than oak were rarely used by Netherlandish painters. Since panels of seasoned wood were used, an uncertain number of years has to be allowed for seasoning when estimating dates. Panels were trimmed of the outer rings, and often each panel only uses

2822-438: The vascular cambium , a layer of cells near the bark that botanists classify as a lateral meristem ; this growth in diameter is known as secondary growth . Visible rings result from the change in growth speed through the seasons of the year; thus, critical for the title method, one ring generally marks the passage of one year in the life of the tree. Removal of the bark of the tree in a particular area may cause deformation of

2905-548: The Chinese style called dougong . The decorative eave end-tiles recovered from the site are broadly analogous to those found in Tang contexts, however recent studies indicate they form part of a distinctive Uyghur stylistic typology. A series of small enclosed courtyards ran along the interior of the northern, western and southern curtain walls; these courtyards were connected to one another by small gates in their walls. Each courtyard held

2988-596: The Diffusion of Reindeer Herding in Eurasia," Vainshtein argued that that Sayan reindeer herding "is the oldest form of reindeer herding and is associated with the earliest domestication of the reindeer by the Samoyedic taiga population of the Sayan Mountains at the turn of the first millennium A.D...The Sayan region was apparently the origin of the economic and cultural complex of reindeer hunters-herdsmen that we now see among

3071-538: The Russian Federation, and Albert II, Prince of Monaco . [REDACTED] Media related to Por-Bazhyn at Wikimedia Commons Sev%E2%80%99yan I. Vainshtein Sevʹ;yan Izrailevich Vainshtein ( Russian : Севьян Израилевич Вайнштейн ; 1926–2008) was a Russian ethnographer , archaeologist , and historian of Siberian and Central Asian peoples. He was a professor at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of

3154-438: The Russian filmmaker Leonid Kruglov visited Vainshtein proposing to produce a film about his expeditions into Tuva , using as a "red line" Vainshtein's correspondence with American Nobel laureate Richard Feynman , who had written him a letter in 1981 requesting his help in securing a visa to visit Tuva, which had not been granted during Feynman's lifetime. In June 2009, Feynman's daughter Michelle did visit Tuva accompanied by

3237-510: The Selenga stone, by Khagan Moyanchur (also known as Bayanchur Khan , AD 747-759), after his victory over local tribes in AD 750. Moyanchur involved the Uyghur Khaganate in internal power struggles in China, and married a Chinese princess. Other identifications of the site included a border fortress, a monastery, a ritual site, and an astronomical observatory; these are found in older literature published before

3320-758: The Universities of Moscow, Novosibirsk and Cambridge , but also at educational institutions in Germany, Finland, France, Sweden, Japan and the USA. Vainshtein's last book is the one that Thor Heyderdahl had urged him to write – a popular-scientific book with his personal experiences and details of the almost 50 years of exploratory travels and research in Central Asia , especially in Tuva, which one can also classify as an autobiographical account of his incredibly difficult expeditions on unknown paths into hitherto uncharted lands. Under

3403-535: The abolition of Manichaeism afterwards, the monastery was abandoned. The empty site was later destroyed by one or more earthquakes and extensive fires in the central complex and elsewhere on the site. The fieldwork at Por-Bazhyn in 2007 and 2008 was followed with great interest in Uyghur media, and a delegation of the Uyghur Cultural Centre (Kazakhstan) visited the site during the excavations in 2007. Being without

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3486-635: The backs of reindeers and camels, and on foot, because Tuva had only very few consolidated roads at the time, especially in the eastern Sayan Mountains . Late in 1959, Vainshtein and his family returned to Moscow . At the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the RAS, he began to undertake further intensive research into the large ancient Asian migrations, and about the Tuvans and their evolution in particular, bolstering this up with regular field research in Tuva and elsewhere in Central Asia . In 1961 Vainshtein took

3569-695: The bristlecone pine in the Southwest US ( White Mountains of California). The dendrochronological equation defines the law of growth of tree rings. The equation was proposed by Russian biophysicist Alexandr N. Tetearing in his work "Theory of populations" in the form: Δ L ( t ) = 1 k v ρ 1 3 d ( M 1 3 ( t ) ) d t , {\displaystyle \Delta L(t)={\frac {1}{k_{v}\,\rho ^{\frac {1}{3}}}}\,{\frac {d\left(M^{\frac {1}{3}}(t)\right)}{dt}},} where Δ L

3652-456: The close guidance of Sevyan Vainshtein, this book was first published in German, with the title Geheimnisvolles Tuwa – Expeditionen in das Herz Asiens , Oststeinbek 2005/2006, along with a DVD featuring Leonid Kruglov's aforementioned documentary as well as many of his photos, and examples of the famous Tuvan throat singing. The book's Russian version, again under the close guidance of the author,

3735-469: The conclusion of modern fieldwork in 2008. Geophysicists found that the island is essentially a plug of permafrost in a shallow lake. This island seems to have risen from the lake several centuries before the fortress was built on it. The clay for the walls of the fortress may have been taken from the lake bed around the island. Geomorphological fieldwork also revealed traces of at least two earthquakes. The first of these seems to have already happened during

3818-416: The construction of the fortress in the 8th century. In the late Middle Ages, another catastrophic earthquake led to fires and to the collapse of the southern and eastern enclosure walls and of the northwestern corner bastion. The outer wall of the enclosure was built using the Chinese hangtu technique (rammed-earth layers in a wooden frame) and was originally 11 m (36 ft) high. The excavation of

3901-404: The database software Tellervo, which is based on the new standard format whilst being able to import lots of different data formats. The desktop application can be attached to measurement devices and works with the database server that is installed separately. Bard et al write in 2023: "The oldest tree-ring series are known as floating since, while their constituent rings can be counted to create

3984-491: The dating of panel paintings . However, unlike analysis of samples from buildings, which are typically sent to a laboratory, wooden supports for paintings usually have to be measured in a museum conservation department, which places limitations on the techniques that can be used. In addition to dating, dendrochronology can also provide information as to the source of the panel. Many Early Netherlandish paintings have turned out to be painted on panels of "Baltic oak" shipped from

4067-606: The effects on tree rings of defoliation caused by insect infestations. By 1882, this observation was already appearing in forestry textbooks. In the 1870s, the Dutch astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn (1851–1922) was using crossdating to reconstruct the climates of the Netherlands and Germany. In 1881, the Swiss-Austrian forester Arthur von Seckendorff -Gudent (1845–1886) was using crossdating. From 1869 to 1901, Robert Hartig (1839–1901),

4150-433: The entire island. The interior is taken up by two large yards, a central building complex, and a chain of small yards along the northern, western and southern walls. The western and eastern curtain walls are relatively well preserved. The main gate, with gate towers and ramps leading up to them, is located in the middle of the eastern wall. The curtain (outer) walls have survived up to a maximum height of 10 m (33 ft),

4233-549: The foothills of the Northern Alps , the southwestern United States and the British Isles. Miyake events , which are major spikes in cosmic rays at known dates, are visible in trees rings and can fix the dating of a floating sequence. The Greek botanist Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC) first mentioned that the wood of trees has rings. In his Trattato della Pittura (Treatise on Painting), Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)

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4316-405: The history of building technology. Many prehistoric forms of buildings used "posts" that were whole young tree trunks; where the bottom of the post has survived in the ground these can be especially useful for dating. Examples: There are many different file formats used to store tree ring width data. Effort for standardisation was made with the development of TRiDaS. Further development led to

4399-426: The isotopes of carbon and oxygen in their spines ( acanthochronology ). These are used for dating in a manner similar to dendrochronology, and such techniques are used in combination with dendrochronology, to plug gaps and to extend the range of the seasonal data available to archaeologists and paleoclimatologists . A similar technique is used to estimate the age of fish stocks through the analysis of growth rings in

4482-487: The latter half of the nineteenth century, the scientific study of tree rings and the application of dendrochronology began. In 1859, the German-American Jacob Kuechler (1823–1893) used crossdating to examine oaks ( Quercus stellata ) in order to study the record of climate in western Texas. In 1866, the German botanist, entomologist, and forester Julius Theodor Christian Ratzeburg (1801–1871) observed

4565-403: The longevity of the trees (up to c.4900 years) in addition to the use of dead samples meant a long, unbroken tree ring sequence could be developed (dating back to c.  6700 BC ). Additional studies of European oak trees, such as the master sequence in Germany that dates back to c.  8500 BC , can also be used to back up and further calibrate radiocarbon dates. Dendroclimatology

4648-432: The maximum span for fully anchored chronology is a little over 11,000 years B.P. IntCal20 is the 2020 "Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve", which provides a calibrated carbon 14 dated sequence going back 55,000 years. The most recent part, going back 13,900 years, is based on tree rings. European chronologies derived from wooden structures initially found it difficult to bridge the gap in the fourteenth century when there

4731-505: The maximum surviving height of the inner walls is 1–1.5 m (3.3–4.9 ft). Por-Bazhyn has been known since the 18th century, and was explored in 1891 for the first time. In 1957–1963, the Russian archaeologist S.I. Vajnstejn excavated in several areas of the site. Large-scale fieldwork was undertaken in 2007–2008 by the Fortress Por-Bajin Foundation, with scholars and scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences ,

4814-429: The northern bastion on the eastern wall revealed traces of a wooden fighting platform running along the top of the curtain wall and bastions. The main gate was found to have three gateways of heavy timber construction, much of it burnt. It opened into two successive courtyards which were connected by a small gate. The outer courtyard was devoid of all structures. The inner courtyard held the main complex which consisted of

4897-462: The rings as the plant overgrows the scar. The rings are more visible in trees which have grown in temperate zones , where the seasons differ more markedly. The inner portion of a growth ring forms early in the growing season, when growth is comparatively rapid (hence the wood is less dense) and is known as "early wood" (or "spring wood", or "late-spring wood" ); the outer portion is the "late wood" (sometimes termed "summer wood", often being produced in

4980-454: The same locale, in overlapping fashion, chronologies can be built up—both for entire geographical regions and for sub-regions. Moreover, wood from ancient structures with known chronologies can be matched to the tree-ring data (a technique called 'cross-dating'), and the age of the wood can thereby be determined precisely. Dendrochronologists originally carried out cross-dating by visual inspection; more recently, they have harnessed computers to do

5063-478: The same subject, that of Christ expelling the money-lenders from the Temple . The results showed that the age of the wood was too late for any of them to have been painted by Hieronymus Bosch . While dendrochronology has become an important tool for dating oak panels, it is not effective in dating the poplar panels often used by Italian painters because of the erratic growth rings in poplar. The sixteenth century saw

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5146-429: The scientific director, officials pleaded to undertake the necessary steps to publish all of Sevyan Vainshtein's books as a multi-volume edition of collected works. Dendrochronology Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating ) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in a tree. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology ,

5229-445: The secondary root xylem of perennial herbaceous plants . Similar seasonal patterns also occur in ice cores and in varves (layers of sediment deposition in a lake, river, or sea bed). The deposition pattern in the core will vary for a frozen-over lake versus an ice-free lake, and with the fineness of the sediment. Sclerochronology is the study of algae deposits. Some columnar cacti also exhibit similar seasonal patterns in

5312-536: The selection of trees for study of long time-spans. For instance, missing rings are rare in oak and elm trees. Critical to the science, trees from the same region tend to develop the same patterns of ring widths for a given period of chronological study. Researchers can compare and match these patterns ring-for-ring with patterns from trees which have grown at the same time in the same geographical zone (and therefore under similar climatic conditions). When one can match these tree-ring patterns across successive trees in

5395-455: The source of ships as well as smaller artifacts made from wood, but which were transported long distances, such as panels for paintings and ship timbers. Miyake events , such as the ones in 774–775 and 993–994 , can provide fixed reference points in an unknown time sequence as they are due to cosmic radiation. As they appear as spikes in carbon 14 in tree rings for that year all round the world, they can be used to date historical events to

5478-512: The study of climate and atmospheric conditions during different periods in history from the wood of old trees. Dendrochronology derives from the Ancient Greek dendron ( δένδρον ), meaning "tree", khronos ( χρόνος ), meaning "time", and -logia ( -λογία ), "the study of". Dendrochronology is useful for determining the precise age of samples, especially those that are too recent for radiocarbon dating , which always produces

5561-400: The summer, though sometimes in the autumn) and is denser. Many trees in temperate zones produce one growth-ring each year, with the newest adjacent to the bark. Hence, for the entire period of a tree's life, a year-by-year record or ring pattern builds up that reflects the age of the tree and the climatic conditions in which the tree grew. Adequate moisture and a long growing season result in

5644-413: The task, applying statistical techniques to assess the matching. To eliminate individual variations in tree-ring growth, dendrochronologists take the smoothed average of the tree-ring widths of multiple tree-samples to build up a 'ring history', a process termed replication. A tree-ring history whose beginning- and end-dates are not known is called a 'floating chronology'. It can be anchored by cross-matching

5727-477: The term for the application of dendrochronology in archaeology. While archaeologists can date wood and when it was felled, it may be difficult to definitively determine the age of a building or structure in which the wood was used; the wood could have been reused from an older structure, may have been felled and left for many years before use, or could have been used to replace a damaged piece of wood. The dating of building via dendrochronology thus requires knowledge of

5810-665: The two got married in Kyzyl. Within this almost 10-year period, Vainshtein undertook wide-ranging ethnographic and archaeologic research in many parts of Tuva. Among these scientific endeavors, he visited and interviewed thousands of Tuvans and explored hundreds of important archaeological monuments, including kurgans of the ancient Scythian culture , all of which he thoroughly researched and described in Russian and international scientific publications. In order to materialize his field research , he undertook many trips on inhospitable expedition trails over thousands of kilometers on horse back, on

5893-550: The various Evenki groups and the peoples of the Sayan area." The Sayan ethnic groups still live almost exclusively in the area of the Eastern Sayan mountains. A total of 30 works, including two monographs, have been translated into English and German as well as into numerous other European languages . The author was invited to hold scientific lectures about Siberian peoples, especially about Tuvans and their tradition of shamanism , at

5976-405: The width of annual growth rings; by taking samples from different sites within a particular region, researchers can build a comprehensive historical sequence. The techniques of dendrochronology are more consistent in areas where trees grew in marginal conditions such as aridity or semi-aridity where the ring growth is more sensitive to the environment, rather than in humid areas where tree-ring growth

6059-608: The work on such a book for too long. There will be many interested readers the world over. Believe my own experience!” He undertook his last major journey to Tuva in 1983. In nearly 25 years of research, Vainshtein expanded his scientific studies towards the Tofalars , the Altai people , the Buryats and the Mongolians . Further research and study trips followed into the 1990s. In the late 1990s,

6142-576: The year. For example, wooden houses in the Viking site at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland were dated by finding the layer with the 993 spike, which showed that the wood is from a tree felled in 1021. Researchers at the University of Bern have provided exact dating of a floating sequence in a Neolithic settlement in northern Greece by tying it to a spike in cosmogenic radiocarbon in 5259 BC. Frost ring

6225-511: Was a building hiatus, which coincided with the Black Death . However, there do exist unbroken chronologies dating back to prehistoric times, for example the Danish chronology dating back to 352 BC. Given a sample of wood, the variation of the tree-ring growths not only provides a match by year, but can also match location because climate varies from place to place. This makes it possible to determine

6308-424: Was awarded the title "Honourable Scientist of Russia" by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin . Previously in1977 he was honored by the parliament of Tuva with the award "Scientist of Honour of the Republic of Tuva." The Russian State Museum for Oriental Art has recently named Vainshtein's monographs a "golden discovery" for the Russian ethnology, especially his aforementioned book The History of Folk Art in Tuva ,

6391-518: Was expelled from the Young Communist League ( Comsomol ) and from the institute. But Vainshtein, with his firmness to defending peoples’ rights, wrote a letter to Vyacheslav Molotov , and some time later it was decided to check the facts in Vainshtein's report by sending a new expedition to the Kets, which proved that his initial report was correct and that this people badly needed help, which

6474-696: Was finally produced with the personal help and support of the Tuvan representative of the State Duma , deputy Larisa Shoigu and some of her friends : it was published in Moscow in January 2009, shortly before the author's unexpected death in October 2008. When this book was presented by Larisa Shoigu in the conference hall of the Aldan Maadyr Tuvan National Museum in June 2009, where Vainshtein had once been

6557-424: Was later refined further to around AD 777. A Chinese presence or influence at Por-Bazhyn is shown by the lay-out of the central complex in Tang style; the use of Chinese construction methods, such as the hangtu technique and dougong ceilings; and the presence of Chinese building materials, such as certain types of roof tiles. Por-Bazhyn combines the lay-out of the Chinese ‘ideal town’, with axial planning and

6640-400: Was painted with geometric designs and horizontal red stripes; the presence of two layers of plaster of different quality suggests repairs. The tiled roof had been supported by 36 wooden columns resting on stone bases. The building appeared to be of post-and-beam construction characteristic of Chinese Tang architecture; this is indicated by burnt timber fragments of interlocking wooden brackets in

6723-479: Was said to have settled in southern Siberia near the headwaters of the Yenisei . Having obtained his university degree in 1950, he proposed researching the origins of the southern Kets, and after this was agreed upon in the same year , he had reached the territory of what today is Tuva , another region of Siberia which ethnologically and archaeologically represented an almost complete unknown area ( terra incognita ) on

6806-412: Was the first person to mention that trees form rings annually and that their thickness is determined by the conditions under which they grew. In 1737, French investigators Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon examined the effect of growing conditions on the shape of tree rings. They found that in 1709, a severe winter produced a distinctly dark tree ring, which served as

6889-414: Was then provided. Vainshtein was admitted back to the Institute and became a prominent student. Vainshtein also decided to undertake a second expedition in 1949, when he established that the Kets consisted of two tribes, whose northern branch were likely those whose ancestors had migrated across the land bridge of the then-dry Bering Strait into America some 12,000 years ago . The Kets’ southern tribe

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