"Can you dig it?"
Posted on 01/31/2008 6:45:24 AM PST by blam
Berlin dig finds city older than thought
By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jan 30, 1:59 PM ET
BERLIN - An archaeological dig in downtown Berlin has uncovered evidence that the German capital is at least 45 years older than had previously been established, authorities said Wednesday.
During excavation work last week in the Mitte district, archaeologists uncovered a wooden beam from an ancient earthen cellar, said Karin Wagner of the city-state's office for historical preservation.
It was in exceptionally good condition, having lain under the water table for centuries, and scientists were able to determine from a sample taken that it had been cut down in 1192.
That means it dates to 45 years before the official date of Berlin's birth, 1237 — the year in which documents first mention the settlement, referring to the priest of the Petrikirche church, which stood not far from the site of the new dig.
Wagner said the best guess is that the cellar — measuring about 10 by 13 feet — was built around the time the tree was cut.
"The archaeologists know it was felled in 1192. What it doesn't prove is that it was built in 1192, but it probably was at least within a year or two," she said.
The dig has been going on since last 2007 in Berlin's Petriplatz, an area near the Spree river where the settlement was originally known as "Coelln," with Berlin being on the other side of the banks.
In addition to being home to the Petrikirche — which was badly damaged in World War II and was eventually removed entirely in 1960 by East Berlin's communist authorities to build a parking lot — it also housed an early City Hall and a Latin school, Wagner said.
The cellar where the wood beam was found would have belonged to a building that predated the Latin school, but on the same site, Wagner said.
Even with the find, Berlin remains young compared with other European capitals such as Paris and London, which predate it by hundreds of years.
But it adds a new chapter to the city's history,
"We had hoped with the excavation to be able to show the people of Berlin a piece of their history," dig leader Claudia Melisch told Die Zeit weekly. "And now we have really found the cradle of Berlin here by the Spree."
GGG Ping.
No beer stains?............
For me, I guess it was somewhere around 1952 or 3 when I first started to think.
This is news ?
/8^)
"Can you dig it?"
LOL. Wood from old US breweries, cypress for the most part, is quite valued, both for the look and properties.
And back then, I'm sure recycling was more economically viable by necessity...
But, as the article states, it's not like knocking a few decades off the "founding" of Berlin is really going to put them in the "old boys club" of cities.
Maybe this “old cellar” was a rathskeller!?..........
And it did turn out to be quite an interesting place to start a city.
Of course, it's lacking the panache of a "Romulus and Remus" myth, but still...
Super! Now my 750 Jahre Gerz Berlin comemerative beer stein has become an antique?
"Can you dig it?"
I call BS.
No possible way can any form of dating nail anything that precisely.
“Come out to play-ee-yay...”
Human beings have been thinking ever since they have been human, but Berlin predates thought. I guess the point is they wouldn’t have put a city there if they’d been thinking.
Note: this topic is from 1/31/2008. Thanks blam.But, uh...
"The archaeologists know it was felled in 1192. What it doesn't prove is that it was built in 1192, but it probably was at least within a year or two," she said.Unless the bark is on the wood, RC dating can't pinpoint when a tree was felled.
An author named Edward Rutherfurd wrote very comprehensive books about the history of London, Salisbury etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Rutherfurd
James Michener also wrote comprehensive history about various locations.
Coelln was founded by German settlers. Berlin, on the other side of the river, was a Slavic town. The Slavs were eventually pushed East and the two towns merged into a city of a Germanic character.
The process is summed up rather nicely at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center web page:
This chronometric technique is the most precise dating tool available to archaeologists who work in areas where trees are particularly responsive to annual variations in precipitation, such as the American Southwest.
Developed by astronomer A. E. Douglass in the 1920s, dendrochronology—or tree-ring dating—involves matching the pattern of tree rings in archaeological wood samples to the pattern of tree rings in a sequence of overlapping samples extending back thousands of years. These cross-dated sequences, called chronologies, vary from one part of the world to the next. In the American Southwest, the unbroken sequence extends back to 322 B.C.
So, when an archaeologist finds a well-preserved piece of wood—say, a roof beam from an ancient pithouse—dendrochronologists prepare a cross section and then match the annual growth rings of the specimen to those in the already-established chronology to determine the year the tree was cut down.
Read how A. E. Douglass pioneered the science of tree rings in this 1929 National Geographic article titled PDF.doc -"The Secret of the Southwest Solved by Talkative Tree Rings." Includes numerous fascinating historic photographs.
The Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research in Tucson is the world's oldest dendrochronology lab; their website includes information for researchers and the general public.
The Science of Tree Rings is an educational website with lots of information—from basic definitions and principles to links to tree-ring databases and other resources.
Again — if there’s no bark, there’s no grounds to claim that the cutting of the tree took place at such and such a date, particularly if it is a shaped piece of wood. That’s with or without dendrochronology. It’s interesting that dendrochronology antedates radiocarbon dating; now the methods are almost interchangeable in articles like this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
