The article is devoted to the results of dendrochronological study of buildings in medieval Novgorod in 1991-2006. The use of modern research methods made it possible to date more than 1,600 samples of archaeological wood, determine the construction time of 330 structures (including bridges of nine streets) and 14 microscopes. Based on reference pine samples, local dendrochronological scales (tree-ring chronologies) of six excavations were created, as well as a computer version of the general arboretum scale of Novgorod. Integrated use of the results of archaeological research and dendroanalysis data makes it possible to identify the dynamics of development of various sites and the development of the planning structure of medieval Novgorod from the oldest centers to the periphery in the X-XV centuries.
Keywords: medieval Novgorod, archeology, excavation, dendrochronology, dendrochronological scale, dating of structures, development dynamics.
Thanks to the unique preservation of clearly stratified layers of the Middle Ages and the unprecedented scale of many years of archaeological excavations in Novgorod, there are excellent conditions for dendrochronological research. Although the study of the wood of Novgorod buildings has almost half a century of tradition, the possibilities of this technique are by no means exhausted. These studies were initiated more than 40 years ago by B. A. Kolchin. His name and the work of the laboratory of the Institute of Archeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, organized by him in the 1960s, are associated with the first major successes of Russian dendrochronology: the creation of an absolute dendrochronological scale of Novgorod based on the materials of the Nerevsky excavation [Vikhrov. Kolchin, 1962; Kolchin, 1963]. These studies gave a powerful impetus to similar studies at other archaeological sites in Eastern Europe (Kolchin and Bitvinskas, 1972; Kolchin and Chernykh, 1977; Kolchin, 1979).
By the early 1990s, the Novgorod collec ...
Read more