Cornell Tree Ring News Today

An interdisciplinary collaboration used tree ring and isotope records to pinpoint a likely culprit for the collapse of the Hittite Empire: three straight years of severe drought in an already dry period.

A Cornell University team led by Sturt Manning, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Classics and director of the Tree-Ring Laboratory, used dendrochronology and a form of radiocarbon dating called wiggle-matching to pinpoint, with 95% probability, the years in which an ancient wooden structures two main components were created: a lower tank in 1444 B.C., and an upper tank in 1432 B.C. Each date has a margin of error of four years.

The Noceto Vasca Votiva is a unique wood structure that was unearthed on a small hill in northern Italy in 2005. Built primarily of oak and slightly...