Dendrochronological analysis of timbers from the Bremen Ship, Germany.

Dendrochronological analysis of timbers from the Bremen Ship

Dendrochronological analysis of timbers from the Bremen Ship was carried out in the 1960s, at a time when dendrochronology as a discipline in Northern Europe was just beginning. Extensive tree-ring datasets for oaks had not yet been built, but nevertheless tree-ring curves from three timbers from the ship were successfully dated. A re-assessment in 2007, of the curves in Bauch (1969), to examine the provenance for these timbers, found that Bauch’s conclusion, that the timber had come from some distance up the Weser River, could be confirmed.
However, in order to examine the history of the procurement of timber for the Bremen Ship in sufficient detail, a more extensive analysis was proposed in 2015. The results of this analysis are described in this report.