Dating of pine timber from historical buildings in Lithuania

Abstract

Thirty samples from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) timber taken from historical buildings of Lithuania were precisely dated and together with living pines used for construction of the long-term chronology. Samples were taken from churches, monasteries and estates located in the central – Kaunas region (Kaunas Karmelitai Church, Kaunas Jezuitai Church, Kaunas City Hall, Aukstoji Freda Estate, Zapyskis Church and Skaruliai Church) and eastern – Vilnius region of Lithuania (Vilnius Evangelikai Reformatai Church, Vilnius Benediktines Church, Vilnius Benediktines Monastery, Vilnius Sv. Mykolas Church, Vilnius Trinitoriai Monastery, Vilnius Cathedral and Vilnius City Hall). Th e most valuable material – samples containing more than 100 rings mainly are from old churches and monasteries in Vilnius region. For the dating of younger samples we used two chronologies compiled from living pine trees: Vingis Park – 24 trees (1673-1989) from Vilnius and Panemune Silas – 8 trees (1783-2002) from Kaunas. Th ese two chronologies show very similar radial growth patterns. For the dating of older material, especially from Vilnius churches, we used successfully two longterm pine chronologies: Dannenstern House from Latvia by dr. Maris Zunde (1445-1740) and Polpinus- 5 from Poland by dr. A. Zielski (1106-1991). Dating results showed that the pine timber material mainly used in the constructions of Lithuanian Churches and Monasteries is from middle of the 17th century up to middle of the 19th century. Th is means that the material from older periods is quite almost lost during the war fi res in the middle ages and the biggest amount of taken samples are representatives of the reconstruction works.