Charcoal piles have become a frequent subject of research in recent years as a better understanding of past human activities in forests is sought. The age of charcoal piles is usually determined by ...radiocarbon dating; dendrochronology is rarely used because of the small size of preserved charcoal remains and the insufficient number of visible tree rings. This paper presents the potential for dendrochronological and 14C method in research into charcoal piles. From 14 charcoal-burning sites in the Czech Republic, 214 pieces of charcoal were anatomically identified at the genus level and dendrochronologically analysed. Our results show that fir dominated in these charcoal remains, followed by oak, beech, spruce and pine. With an overall dendrochronological dating success of 24 %, fir charcoal was dated most often (65 %) with measurable tree rings ranging from 14 to 90. The oldest charcoals were dendrochronologically dated to summer 1682 CE; conversely, the youngest had end dates in the second half of the 19th century. The relatively poor dating success of oak charcoal very likely resulted from the use of branches for charcoal production rather than tree trunks. Based on an analysis of selected charcoal samples, we confirm that radiocarbon dating provided a very wide range of dates in the post-1650 CE period and the use of the wiggle-matching method was usually challenging because of short TRW series. Based on samples with preserved waney edges, we conclude that charcoal was more commonly made from wood felled in the summer than in the winter. Despite the relatively low level of success of dendrochronological dating, it seems more effective for dating charcoal than the 14C method, especially with samples from the last 350 years.
•Fir dominated in the investigated charcoal followed by oak, beech, spruce and pine.•Success of dendrochronological dating of charcoals was 24 %.•Oak charcoal was made of branches instead of coppice shoots or tree trunks.•Charcoal was more often made from trees felled in summer than in winter.•Dendrochronological dating of charcoal is more effective than 14C method.
Over the past several centuries, the iron industry played a central role in the economy of Sweden and much of northern Europe. A crucial component of iron manufacturing was the production of ...charcoal, which was often created in charcoal piles. These features are visible in LiDAR (light detection and ranging) datasets. These charcoal piles vary in their morphology by region, and training data for some feature types are severely lacking. Here, we investigate the potential for machine automation to aid archaeologists in recording charcoal piles with limited training data availability in a forested region of Jönköping County, Sweden. We first use hydrological depression algorithms to conduct a preliminary assessment of the study region and compile suitable training data for charcoal production sites. Then, we use these datasets to train a series of RetinaNet deep learning models, which are less computationally expensive than many popular deep learning architectures (e.g., R-CNNs), allowing for greater usability. Together, our results demonstrate how charcoal piles can be automatically extracted from LiDAR datasets, which has great implications for improving our understanding of the long-term environmental impact of the iron industry across Northern Europe. Furthermore, our workflow for developing and implementing deep learning models for archaeological research can expand the use of such methods to regions that lack suitable training data.
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Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- Bibliographical footnotes- English summary- Bibliogr. przy tekście- Streszcz. w jęz. ang.- All metadata published by Europeana are ...available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
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