New research of long-distance connections in North-western Europe using dendrochronology

Based on the success of dendrochronological inter-site analyses using the DCCD (Jansma et al. 2014; Jansma & Van Lanen 2016), all Dutch-based data in this repository with end dates ranging from 100 BC to 1100 AD managed by the RCE and RING Foundation now have been reanalysed. The results have been combined with recently-developed geospatial reconstructions of former Roman and Early-medieval route networks in the Netherlands (Van Lanen et al. 2015a; Van Lanen et al. 2015b) and have been compared to the (shifting) spatio-chronological distribution patterns of non-locally produced ceramics and stone household goods in this region (Van Lanen et al., 2016). The results show that interdisciplinary archaeological research using large datasets such as those combined in the DCCD can lead to significant new insights about the former landscape, economy, and long-distance connections in north-western Europe.

Acknowledgement

The DCCD repository was funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO section Humanities; 2006-2014), RCE, and DANS (Data Archiving and Networked Services, of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Sciences). We are very grateful to the many researchers who made their data available through this repository. The inventory of individual wood finds and dendrochronological time series from Dorestad was created in the context of the research project Dorestad: Vicus Famosus (funded by NWO). Follow-up dendrochronological research took place within this project and within the NWO/Humanities-funded research programme The Dark Age of the Lowlands in an interdisciplinary light: people, landscape and climate in the Netherlands between AD 300 and 1000 (Utrecht University; 2012-2019). Part of the research in 2011-2012 was funded by RCE and the RING Foundation.