The data set consists of tree-ring width measurements in Decadal/Tuscon RWL format24, COFECHA25 listings for every RWL file, online-only Tables 1 and 2 with the description for every living-tree and historical chronology. In each RWL file the measurements for each tree denoted by a number are usually represented by several cores denoted by the letters a,b,c, etc., e.g. T15S1a and T15S1b are two cores for the first tree at the site T15S, T15S15a and T15S15b are two cores for the 15th tree at the site. The historical chronologies usually contain several codes referring to different sources of materials, but the numbering is the same – numbers denote different beams from each source and letters a-d denote the measurements along different radii from each beam.
Missing values in RWL files are denoted either by zeroes in the case of missing rings or by −888 in the case of missing core segments. The description of each site contains the information on the location, geographical coordinates, number of trees and samples, information on series intercorrelation, average mean sensitivity, quality of the cross-dating, and related publications (online-only Tables 1, 2). Some sites also have descriptions of vegetation and soils. The RWL files of the measurements and the related COFECHA quality control listings are publicly available in ITRDB. The ITRDB codes and links are provided in the online-only Tables 1 and 2. The whole data set is also available as a standalone set of files26 in Figshare repository, where RWL files are named as the site code plus ‘.rwl’ extension, the COFECHA listings are named as the site code plus ‘COF.txt’. For example, the site T15S is represented by the files ‘T15S.rwl’ and ‘T15SCOF.txt’. Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 represent printable versions of Online-only Tables 1 and 2, respectively.
Below we describe the sources of material for each historical chronology.
Kirillov
Materials for the Kirillov chronology were collected over many years from archaeological excavations in the town of Kirillov, Vologda region. They include wood samples obtained from architectural buildings and various small archaeological excavations in the vicinity of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery (59.86°N, 38.37°E). During restoration work in 1969, 1971, 1985, and 1987, samples of wooden ties and piles of foundations from brick defensive walls and monastery buildings were collected. The archaeological part of the collection also contains samples from wooden log cabins, wells, and log heaps (remnants of buildings demolished during renovation) and discovered during rescue excavations in 1994, 1998–2000, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2015, 2016, and 2018. The samples were processed in the Laboratory of Natural Science Methods in Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology RAS. Unfortunately, most of the original material has not been archived after the measurements were made. The Kirillov chronology was calendar dated with living trees from the Vologda region (sites KOV and SHBO) and materials from the Museum of Wooden Architecture of the Vologda Region “Semyonkovo”27.
Vologda
The collection consists of materials from wooden buildings in the city of Vologda (59.22°N, 39.89°E). The data was assembled by D. Kats in the 1990s and later archived at the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology in Ekaterinburg. In 2009 the collection was transferred again, and now resides at the Institute of Geography RAS, where ring-widths were measured a second time. The data set includes the samples from 19th century wooden houses on Gogol Street, numbers 3 and 5 (codes AU and AV), from Gertsen Street number 58 (code BA), from the Spaso-Prilutskiy Monastery in the northern outskirts of Vologda (code BB), and from samples of unknown origin from the 18th century (code M). The Vologda chronology was calendar dated with the Kirillov chronology.
Novgorod
Materials in the Novgorod chronology are derived from archaeological excavations in the city of Velikiy Novgorod (58.52°N, 31.27°E), in addition to samples from wooden buildings of the Novgorod Region. The latter include materials from building transferred to the Museum of Wooden Architecture “Vitoslavlitsy” from the Novgorod region. These include the Chapel of Magdalena (code N04A), the Church of St. Nicolay from the village of Visokiy Ostrov (code N09A), and a church from the village of Tukholi (code N11A). Archaeological materials come from the city of Novgorod, from the excavation of Yaroslavovo Dvorische (archaeologist A.V. Andrienko, code N02A28), as well as excavations on Telegina-Redyatina Street (code ‘tere’), Posolskaya Street (code ‘posol’), Znamenskaya Street (code ‘znam’), Troitskaya Street (codes ‘35a-1-b1’ and ‘16a-1-v2’), and B. Konyushennaya Street (code ‘kon’), which were directed by archaeologist O.I. Oleynikov. The Novgorod chronology was calendar dated using the russ1 chronology from the ITRDB (with a correction for the known error of 1 year29), and by crossdating with the Kirillov and Vologda chronologies.
Arkhangelsk
The Arkhangelsk chronology includes samples from houses and churches from the northwestern part of the Arkhangelsk region (63.4–64.7°N, 37.4–43.4°E). These include wooden houses from the town of Pinega, Kudrina Street 45 and 55 (codes I15A and I14A, 64.70°N, 43.39°E), the house of the Bazheniny family in the village of Vavchuga, Kholmogorskoye district (code I21A, 64.23°N, 41.92°E), the Church of Introduction in the village of Vorzogory (code I02A, 63.89°N, 37.67°E), the Church of Vladimir in the village of Medvedevskaya (code I04A, 63.81°N, 38.32°E), and from the the Ensemble of the Church in the village of Piyala (codes I08A, I09A, P, 63.43°N, 39.08°E), all located in the Onezhskiy District. The chronology was calendar dated using a living pine tree-ring series (code I24S, 64.11°N, 38.03°E) in addition to crossdating with the Solovki chronology30.
Karelia
This chronology includes materials from eight churches in the Republic of Karelia, all located along the shores of Onega Lake (60.80–62.72°N, 33.06–35.27°E)31. Most of these measurements are of lower precision than of the other data in this study (0.05 mm versus 0.001 mm) however, they are vital to the dendrochronological dating in the region. The Karelia chronology was calendar dated using the Solovki and Arkhangelsk chronologies.
Zapadnaya Dvina (ZD1, ZD2)
Tree-ring chronologies ZD1 and ZD2 were constructed with subfossil oak trees sampled in the alluvial deposits of the Zapadnaya Dvina River and its tributary, the Velesa River. The sample sites include reaches of both rivers upstream of their confluence (56.06°N, 31.97°E). Subfossil oak tree trunks were discovered in the riverbed as well as in riverbank alluvial deposits and oxbow lakes. The ZD1 and ZD2 chronologies do not overlap with the living oak tree-ring series from the region, but were crossdated with chronologies from Belarus and from the Baltic region. ZD1 (CE 572–1382) was calendar dated with oak samples from the Church of the Saviour’s Transfiguration in Polotsk (Belarus) which spans CE 869-112232; it also crossdates with subfossil oak series from Smarhon, Belarus33 and the Baltic 1 chronology34. A detailed report was previously published elsewhere14. The calendar age of the ZD2 chronology (CE 1346–1762) was established by comparison with the 2021BLT3 chronology35.
Kostroma
Materials for the Kostroma chronology come from archaeological excavations in the City of Kostroma and from the wooden buildings from the surrounding Kostroma Region. They include materials from a church in the Andreevskoye village (code K2A, 58.16°N, 41.30°E), two buildings from the Museum of Wooden Architecture in the Kostroma region, which include the house of Skobyolkin (code K13A), and the Church of Ilijah the Prophet (code K14A). The other materials come from the ‘Melochniye Ryady’ excavations in the center of Kostroma, (archaeologist A.Lazarev, code K09A). The chronology was calendar dated using the Kirillov and Vologda chronologies.
Smolensk
Seven beams of pine come from archaeological excavations at Pobedy Square in the city of Smolensk (54.78°N, 32.05°E)36. They were crossdated using the chronology from the Dannenshtern House in Riga37. The material of the Dannenshtern House likely comes from near the headwaters of the Kasplya tributary of the Daugava River (Zapadnaya Dvina River) located near Smolensk.
Solovki
The Solovki chronology consists of measurements from living trees (pines PDB and spruce PDEL; 65.12°N, 35.57°E), beams in a church on Malaya Muksalma Island (code MMCH; 65.01°N, 36.00°E), a building built for resin extraction (code SMOL), a barn (code SOLAM), and from a monastery outbuilding (or skit) on Sekirnaya Hill (code SLKL; 64.08°N, 35.57°E). Also included in the chronology are series from a satellite monastery building on Bolshaya Muksalma Island (code BMSK; 65.03°N, 35.90°E), series from a bathhouse nearby (code BMBN), samples from the Church of Andrew the First-Called on Zayatskiy Island (code B24A; 64.97°N, 35.65°E), series from a 19th century building (code SOLIZ), along with archaeological materials from the monastery (codes B27A, B28A), and a barn on Anzer Island (codes B39A, B38A; 65.19°N, 35.98°E). The earliest part of the chronology consists of ring-width series from beams from the 16th century Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy Cathedral (code SP; 65.02°N, 35.71°E).
Source: Ecology - nature.com
