Misplaced Pages

#910089

98-581: The first church in Tynset was a wooden stave church that was completed in 1211. The new church was consecrated in September 1211 by the Archbishop Tore. This church was located about 400 metres (1,300 ft) northeast of the present church site. In 1654, the old church was torn down and work on a new church on the same site began soon after. The new church was a timber-framed long church that

196-539: A 2 t 3 k v ρ 1 3 ( c 4 + c 1 e − a 1 t + c 2 e − a 2 t ) 2 3 {\displaystyle \Delta L(t)=-{\frac {c_{1}e^{-a_{1}t}+c_{2}e^{-a_{2}t}}{3k_{v}\rho ^{\frac {1}{3}}\left(c_{4}+c_{1}e^{-a_{1}t}+c_{2}e^{-a_{2}t}\right)^{\frac {2}{3}}}}} where c 1 , c 2 , and c 4 are some coefficients,

294-535: A 1 and a 2 are positive constants. The formula is useful for correct approximation of samples data before data normalization procedure. The typical forms of the function Δ L ( t ) of annual growth of wood ring are shown in the figures. Dendrochronology allows specimens of once-living material to be accurately dated to a specific year. Dates are often represented as estimated calendar years B.P. , for before present, where "present" refers to 1 January 1950. Timber core samples are sampled and used to measure

392-549: A German professor of forest pathology, wrote a series of papers on the anatomy and ecology of tree rings. In 1892, the Russian physicist Fedor Nikiforovich Shvedov  [ ro ; ru ; uk ] (1841–1905) wrote that he had used patterns found in tree rings to predict droughts in 1882 and 1891. During the first half of the twentieth century, the astronomer A. E. Douglass founded the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at

490-480: A check in radiocarbon dating to calibrate radiocarbon ages . New growth in trees occurs in a layer of cells near the bark. A tree's growth rate changes in a predictable pattern throughout the year in response to seasonal climate changes, resulting in visible growth rings. Each ring marks a complete cycle of seasons , or one year, in the tree's life. As of 2023, securely dated tree-ring data for Germany and Ireland are available going back 13,910 years. A new method

588-440: A church can also be recognized from the holes which remain from earlier earth-bound post churches built on the same sites. Little is known about what these older churches actually looked like or how they were constructed, as they were all destroyed or replaced many centuries ago. The oldest technique is often called palisade work and was a self-supporting wall construction with densely placed earthen pillars or planks, which enclosed

686-401: A gradual replacement of wooden panels by canvas as the support for paintings, which means the technique is less often applicable to later paintings. In addition, many panel paintings were transferred onto canvas or other supports during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The dating of buildings with wooden structures and components is also done by dendrochronology; dendroarchaeology is

784-487: A low foundation of stones. These are interconnected in the corner notch, forming a rigid sill frame. The corner posts or staves ( stavene in Norwegian) are cross-cut at the lower end and fit over the corner notches and cover them, protecting them from moisture. On top of the sill beam is a groove into which the lower ends of the wall planks ( veggtilene ) fit. The last wall plank is wedge-shaped and rammed into place. When

882-674: A motif depicting a dragon similar to those often seen on Norwegian stave churches and on surviving artifacts from Denmark and Gotland. Whether this decoration can be attributed to cultural similarities or whether it indicates similar construction methods in Germany has sparked controversy. Replica stave churches have been built in several American communities, mostly in the Upper Midwest, with Norwegian or Islandic immigrant populations. Lorentz Dietrichson in his book De norske Stavkirker ("The Norwegian Stave Churches") (1892) claimed that

980-512: A much greater number have been analysed. A portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots in the National Portrait Gallery, London was believed to be an eighteenth-century copy. However, dendrochronology revealed that the wood dated from the second half of the sixteenth century. It is now regarded as an original sixteenth-century painting by an unknown artist. On the other hand, dendrochronology was applied to four paintings depicting

1078-515: A palisade church. Archaeological excavations have shown that stave churches are descended from palisade constructions and from later churches with earth-bound posts. Similar palisade constructions are known from buildings from the Viking Age . Logs were split in two halves, set or rammed into the earth (generally called post in ground construction) and given a roof. This proved a simple but very strong form of construction. If set in gravel,

SECTION 10

#1732801488911

1176-461: A previous stave church. Other notable places are Maria Minor church in Lund, with its traces of a post church with palisades , and some old parts of Hemse stave church on Gotland . In Skåne alone there were around 300 such churches when Adam of Bremen visited Denmark in the first half of the 11th century, but how many of those were stave churches or post churches is unknown. In England , there

1274-402: A range rather than an exact date. However, for a precise date of the death of the tree a full sample to the edge is needed, which most trimmed timber will not provide. It also gives data on the timing of events and rates of change in the environment (most prominently climate) and also in wood found in archaeology or works of art and architecture, such as old panel paintings . It is also used as

1372-503: A reference for subsequent European naturalists. In the U.S., Alexander Catlin Twining (1801–1884) suggested in 1833 that patterns among tree rings could be used to synchronize the dendrochronology of various trees and thereby to reconstruct past climates across entire regions. The English polymath Charles Babbage proposed using dendrochronology to date the remains of trees in peat bogs or even in geological strata (1835, 1838). During

1470-480: A relative internal chronology, they cannot be dendro-matched with the main Holocene absolute chronology. However, 14C analyses performed at high resolution on overlapped absolute and floating tree-rings series enable one to link them almost absolutely and hence to extend the calibration on annual tree rings until ≈13 900 cal yr BP." Herbchronology is the analysis of annual growth rings (or simply annual rings) in

1568-551: A relatively long time before rotting. They may have been scorched at the lower end to avoid premature decay. Postholes, often with remnants of the former pillars, have been found under or near several stave churches and in places where legends say that there must have been churches. Remains of approximately 25 pillar buildings have been identified in Norway, and indirect traces of 7–8 more. Remains of pillar churches are also found under stone churches such as Mære and Kinsarvik. Many of

1666-452: A room and at the same time carried the roof. Later, split logs were used, which gave the walls a flat inside, and the edges could be leveled or fitted with tongue and groove. Palisade churches have not been found in Norway. To prevent early decay, the posts or planks were tarred, and the lower ends were charred by burning. The palisade rows were often placed in ditches filled with stone. It was long thought that this technique disappeared before

1764-597: A section against another chronology (tree-ring history) whose dates are known. A fully anchored and cross-matched chronology for oak and pine in central Europe extends back 12,460 years, and an oak chronology goes back 7,429 years in Ireland and 6,939 years in England . Comparison of radiocarbon and dendrochronological ages supports the consistency of these two independent dendrochronological sequences. Another fully anchored chronology that extends back 8,500 years exists for

1862-424: A small part of the radius of the trunk. Consequently, dating studies usually result in a terminus post quem (earliest possible) date, and a tentative date for the arrival of a seasoned raw panel using assumptions as to these factors. As a result of establishing numerous sequences, it was possible to date 85–90% of the 250 paintings from the fourteenth to seventeenth century analysed between 1971 and 1982; by now

1960-417: A wide ring, while a drought year may result in a very narrow one. Direct reading of tree ring chronologies is a complex science, for several reasons. First, contrary to the single-ring-per-year paradigm, alternating poor and favorable conditions, such as mid-summer droughts, can result in several rings forming in a given year. In addition, particular tree species may present "missing rings", and this influences

2058-557: Is a medieval wooden Christian church building once common in north-western Europe . The name derives from the building's structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber framing where the load-bearing ore-pine posts are called stafr in Old Norse ( stav in modern Norwegian ). Two related church building types also named for their structural elements, the post church and palisade church , are often called 'stave churches'. Originally much more widespread, most of

SECTION 20

#1732801488911

2156-636: Is a term used to designate a layer of deformed, collapsed tracheids and traumatic parenchyma cells in tree ring analysis. They are formed when air temperature falls below freezing during a period of cambial activity. They can be used in dendrochronology to indicate years that are colder than usual. Dates from dendrochronology can be used as a calibration and check of radiocarbon dating . This can be done by checking radiocarbon dates against long master sequences, with Californian bristle-cone pines in Arizona being used to develop this method of calibration as

2254-427: Is based on measuring variations in oxygen isotopes in each ring, and this 'isotope dendrochronology' can yield results on samples which are not suitable for traditional dendrochronology due to too few or too similar rings. Some regions have "floating sequences", with gaps which mean that earlier periods can only be approximately dated. As of 2024, only three areas have continuous sequences going back to prehistoric times,

2352-409: Is more uniform (complacent). In addition, some genera of trees are more suitable than others for this type of analysis. For instance, the bristlecone pine is exceptionally long-lived and slow growing, and has been used extensively for chronologies; still-living and dead specimens of this species provide tree-ring patterns going back thousands of years, in some regions more than 10,000 years. Currently,

2450-646: Is one similar church of Saxon origin, with much debate as to whether it is a stave church or predates them. This is the Greensted Church in Essex . General consensus categorizes it as Saxon Type A. Another church bears similarities to stave churches, the medieval stone church of St. Mary in Kilpeck in Herefordshire . It features a number of dragon heads. In Germany , there is one stone church with

2548-500: Is the Borgund group . In these churches the posts are connected halfway up with one or two horizontal double ″ pincer beams ″ with semicircular indentations, clasping the row of posts from both sides. Cross-braces are inserted between the posts and the upper and lower pincer beams (or above the single pincer beam), forming a very rigid interconnection, and resembling the triforium of stone basilicas . This design made it possible to omit

2646-426: Is the science of determining past climates from trees primarily from the properties of the annual tree rings. Other properties of the annual rings, such as maximum latewood density (MXD) have been shown to be better proxies than simple ring width. Using tree rings, scientists have estimated many local climates for hundreds to thousands of years previous. Dendrochronology has become important to art historians in

2744-584: Is unknown in Old Norse, presumably because there were no other types of wooden churches. When Norway's churches after the Reformation were constructed from logs, there was a need for a separate term for the older churches. In written sources from the Middle Ages, there is a clear distinction between stafr (posts) and þili or vægþili (wall boards). However, in documents from the 1600–1700s, "stave"

2842-449: Is width of annual ring, t is time (in years), ρ is density of wood, k v is some coefficient, M ( t ) is function of mass growth of the tree. Ignoring the natural sinusoidal oscillations in tree mass, the formula for the changes in the annual ring width is: Δ L ( t ) = − c 1 e − a 1 t + c 2 e −

2940-529: The University of Arizona . Douglass sought to better understand cycles of sunspot activity and reasoned that changes in solar activity would affect climate patterns on earth, which would subsequently be recorded by tree-ring growth patterns ( i.e. , sunspots → climate → tree rings). Horizontal cross sections cut through the trunk of a tree can reveal growth rings, also referred to as tree rings or annual rings . Growth rings result from new growth in

3038-550: The Vistula region via ports of the Hanseatic League . Oak panels were used in a number of northern countries such as England , France and Germany . Wooden supports other than oak were rarely used by Netherlandish painters. Since panels of seasoned wood were used, an uncertain number of years has to be allowed for seasoning when estimating dates. Panels were trimmed of the outer rings, and often each panel only uses

Tynset Church - Misplaced Pages Continue

3136-400: The church at Haltdalen . On the stone foundation, four huge ground beams ( grunnstokker ) are placed like a ⌗ sign, their ends protruding 1–2 meters from the lap joint where they intersect. The ends of these beams support the sills of the outer walls, forming a separate horizontal frame. The tall internal posts are placed on the internal frame of ground beams, and carry the main roof above

3234-758: The clerestory , arcades and capitals . The "basilica theory" was introduced by N. Nicolaysen in Mindesmærker af Middelalderens Kunst i Norge (1854). Nicolaysen wrote: "Our stave churches are now the only remaining of its kind, and according to the sparse records and known circumstances, it appears that nothing similar existed except perhaps in Britain and Ireland." (" Vore stavkirker er nu de eneste i sit slags, og saavidt sparsomme beretninger og andre omstændigheder lader formode, synes de heller ikke tidligere at have havt noget sidestykke med undtagelse af maaske i Storbritannien og Irland .") Nicolaysen further claimed that

3332-438: The vascular cambium , a layer of cells near the bark that botanists classify as a lateral meristem ; this growth in diameter is known as secondary growth . Visible rings result from the change in growth speed through the seasons of the year; thus, critical for the title method, one ring generally marks the passage of one year in the life of the tree. Removal of the bark of the tree in a particular area may cause deformation of

3430-414: The 19th century when a substantial number were destroyed. Today, 28 historical stave churches remain standing in Norway. Stave churches were particularly common in less populated areas in high valleys and forest land, and in fishermen's villages on islands and minor villages along fjords. By about 1800, 322 stave churches were still known in Norway, most of them in sparsely populated areas. If the main church

3528-565: The Mør type are the largest. He calculated the ground plan and area for 79 churches, and the nine largest were all in Sunnmøre with Hjørundfjord, Volda and Norddal of over 280 m . This is three times larger than, for example, Urnes and Hopperstad. According to Dietrichson, the large size of the stave churches in Sunnmøre were partly a result of later expansions. He estimated the cross arms of Volda Stave Church at 7.3 × 6 meters. Hjørundfjord Stave Church

3626-547: The Urnes stave church in Luster, where many building parts with wooden sheds in the urn style must have belonged to an older church. It has now been proven that the reused building parts originally belonged to the current church's forerunner, dendrochronologically dated to the period 1070–1080. However, this was not a post church, but a real stave church where corner poles and wall planks stood on sleepers. Håkon Christie assumed that

3724-701: The bristlecone pine in the Southwest US ( White Mountains of California). The dendrochronological equation defines the law of growth of tree rings. The equation was proposed by Russian biophysicist Alexandr N. Tetearing in his work "Theory of populations" in the form: Δ L ( t ) = 1 k v ρ 1 3 d ( M 1 3 ( t ) ) d t , {\displaystyle \Delta L(t)={\frac {1}{k_{v}\,\rho ^{\frac {1}{3}}}}\,{\frac {d\left(M^{\frac {1}{3}}(t)\right)}{dt}},} where Δ L

3822-434: The central nave ( skip ). On the outer frame of sills rest the main wall planks ( veggtiler ), carrying the roof over the pentice or aisles ( omgang ) surrounding the central space. The roof thus slopes down in two steps, as in a basilica . The tall internal posts ( staver ) are interconnected with brackets ( bueknær ), and also connected to the outer walls with aisle rafters, creating a laterally rigid construction. Closer to

3920-481: The church caught fire because of the careless handling of an open fire during a wedding in the church. The church was a total loss. Afterwards, there was talk of building a stone church, but this was too expensive. Peder Ellingson was hired to design the new wooden, octagonal building. The new church was consecrated in 1795. In 1814, this church served as an election church ( Norwegian : valgkirke ). Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it

4018-597: The church more accurately using radiocarbon dating or dendrochronology . Under the Urnes Stave Church , remains of two such churches have been found, with Christian graves discovered beneath the oldest church structure. A single church of palisade construction has been discovered under the Hemse stave church . The next design phase resulted from the observation that earthbound posts were susceptible to humidity, causing them to rot away over time. To prevent this,

Tynset Church - Misplaced Pages Continue

4116-403: The church's year of construction to the period just after the year 1053 (+10 / −55 years). By lifting the pole planks up from the ground and placing them on sleepers clamped between more powerful corner or intermediate posts, the risk of rot damage was reduced. Thinner materials could then be used in the complementary parts of the construction. Earthen piles of coarse round timber could stand for

4214-482: The cross arms were later added to the lumber. According to Håkon Christie, these churches of the Mør type had a simpler construction and were both larger and longer than the other types. Roar Hauglid estimated that most (80–90%) of the medieval Norwegian stave churches were simple single-nave buildings (Type A) and most were relatively small. Hauglid called these "the ordinary Norwegian stave church". Stave churches were once common in northern Europe. In Norway alone, it

4312-404: The database software Tellervo, which is based on the new standard format whilst being able to import lots of different data formats. The desktop application can be attached to measurement devices and works with the database server that is installed separately. Bard et al write in 2023: "The oldest tree-ring series are known as floating since, while their constituent rings can be counted to create

4410-491: The dating of panel paintings . However, unlike analysis of samples from buildings, which are typically sent to a laboratory, wooden supports for paintings usually have to be measured in a museum conservation department, which places limitations on the techniques that can be used. In addition to dating, dendrochronology can also provide information as to the source of the panel. Many Early Netherlandish paintings have turned out to be painted on panels of "Baltic oak" shipped from

4508-400: The earliest churches in Norway were built using this technique, but no such buildings have survived. It is an open question whether limited life was the reason why they were replaced by real stave churches with sleepers, or whether there were other reasons. Some of the older materials found in several of the stave churches are thought to originate from such early pillar churches, in particular at

4606-623: The effects on tree rings of defoliation caused by insect infestations. By 1882, this observation was already appearing in forestry textbooks. In the 1870s, the Dutch astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn (1851–1922) was using crossdating to reconstruct the climates of the Netherlands and Germany. In 1881, the Swiss-Austrian forester Arthur von Seckendorff -Gudent (1845–1886) was using crossdating. From 1869 to 1901, Robert Hartig (1839–1901),

4704-403: The entire structure up on stone foundations and placing the poles on sleepers, the life of the structure was significantly extended. The technique was developed as early as the 11th century, but it has only been proven in the forerunner of the current stave church. This was also a real stave church, since both the corner stakes and the tiles have stood on sleepers that were reused as foundations for

4802-400: The existing church. Stone as a base for poles was used as early as Roman times and additional walls in sleepers may have been used from the 400s and 600s. Lorentz Dietrichson believed that the stave churches were originally small and only later built with larger dimensions. He believed that the background for this was the construction technique. He points out that the youngest churches in

4900-549: The facade, the ground floor and the floor plan – the first known architectural drawing of a stave church. Between 1950 and 1970, postholes from older buildings were discovered under Lom stave church as well as under masonry churches such as Kinsarvik Church , and this discovery was an important contribution to understanding the origin of stave churches. Postholes were first identified during excavations in Urnes stave church. The number of stave churches constructed in Iceland and

4998-563: The foothills of the Northern Alps , the southwestern United States and the British Isles. Miyake events , which are major spikes in cosmic rays at known dates, are visible in trees rings and can fix the dating of a floating sequence. The Greek botanist Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC) first mentioned that the wood of trees has rings. In his Trattato della Pittura (Treatise on Painting), Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)

SECTION 50

#1732801488911

5096-505: The freestanding lower part of intermediate posts. In some churches only the four corner posts remain (for example in Lomen Stave Church ). Many stave churches had or still have outer galleries or ambulatories around their whole perimeters, loosely connected to the plank walls. These probably served to protect the church from a harsh climate, and for processions. At the base of Type A churches, there are four heavy sill beams on

5194-405: The history of building technology. Many prehistoric forms of buildings used "posts" that were whole young tree trunks; where the bottom of the post has survived in the ground these can be especially useful for dating. Examples: There are many different file formats used to store tree ring width data. Effort for standardisation was made with the development of TRiDaS. Further development led to

5292-426: The isotopes of carbon and oxygen in their spines ( acanthochronology ). These are used for dating in a manner similar to dendrochronology, and such techniques are used in combination with dendrochronology, to plug gaps and to extend the range of the seasonal data available to archaeologists and paleoclimatologists . A similar technique is used to estimate the age of fish stocks through the analysis of growth rings in

5390-552: The latter half of the nineteenth century, the scientific study of tree rings and the application of dendrochronology began. In 1859, the German-American Jacob Kuechler (1823–1893) used crossdating to examine oaks ( Quercus stellata ) in order to study the record of climate in western Texas. In 1866, the German botanist, entomologist, and forester Julius Theodor Christian Ratzeburg (1801–1871) observed

5488-572: The layout and design may have been inspired by Byzantine architecture. Nicolaysen wrote: "All facts suggest that the stave churches like the masonry churches and all medieval architecture in Western Europe originated from the Roman basilica." (" Alt synes at henpege paa, at forbilledet til vore stavkirker ligesom til stenkirkerne og overhovedet til hele den vesteuropæiske arkitektur i middelalderen er udgaaet fra den romerske basilika. ") This theory

5586-403: The longevity of the trees (up to c.4900 years) in addition to the use of dead samples meant a long, unbroken tree ring sequence could be developed (dating back to c.  6700 BC ). Additional studies of European oak trees, such as the master sequence in Germany that dates back to c.  8500 BC , can also be used to back up and further calibrate radiocarbon dates. Dendroclimatology

5684-432: The maximum span for fully anchored chronology is a little over 11,000 years B.P. IntCal20 is the 2020 "Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve", which provides a calibrated carbon 14 dated sequence going back 55,000 years. The most recent part, going back 13,900 years, is based on tree rings. European chronologies derived from wooden structures initially found it difficult to bridge the gap in the fourteenth century when there

5782-658: The next hundred years 136 of these disappeared. There were still 95 stave churches in 1800, while over 200 former stave churches were still known by name or in written sources. From 1850 to 1885, 32 stave churches disappeared; since then only the Fantoft Stave Church has been lost. Heddal stave church was the first stave church described in a scholarly publication, when Johannes Flintoe wrote an essay in Samlinger til det Norske Folks Sprog og Historie (Christiania, 1834). The book also printed Flintoe's drawings of

5880-584: The plot before twelve months; if not, he will pay three marks in punishment to the bishop and bring timber and rebuild the church anyway. ( Um einskildmenn byggjer kyrkje, anten lendmann gjer det eller bonde, eller kven det er som byggjer kyrkje, skal han halda henne i stand og inkje øyda tufti. Men um kyrkja brotnar og hyrnestavane fell, då skal han føra timber på tufti innan tolv månadar; um det ikkje kjem, skal han bøta tre merker for det til biskopen og koma med timber og byggja opp kyrkja likevel. ) In Norway, stave churches were gradually replaced; many survived until

5978-399: The post construction fell out of use because the posts rotted from below. Jørgen H. Jensenius believes that archaeological material does not provide unequivocal support for Christie's hypothesis; a change in size or transition to a stone church may also explain why excavated pillars fell out of use. Røldal Stave Church may have had some pillars set in the ground until 1913. In Lom Stave Church,

SECTION 60

#1732801488911

6076-477: The posts were placed on top of large stones, significantly increasing their lifespans. The stave church in Røldal is believed to be of this type. In later churches the posts were set on a raised sill frame resting on stone foundations. This is the stave church in its most mature form. It is now common to group the churches into two categories: the first, without free-standing posts, often referred to as Type A; and

6174-624: The rafters. Every piece is locked into position by other pieces, making for a very rigid construction; yet all points otherwise susceptible to the harsh weather are covered. Single-nave churches in Norway: Grip , Haltdalen , Undredal , Hedal , Reinli , Eidsborg , Rollag , Uvdal , Nore , Høyjord , Røldal , and Garmo . The only remaining church of this type outside Norway is the Hedared church in Sweden, which shows similarities with

6272-699: The rest of Europe is unknown. Some believe they were the first type of church to be constructed in Scandinavia ; however, the post churches are an older type, although the difference between the two is slight. A stave church has a lower construction set on a frame, whereas a post church has earth-bound posts. In Sweden , the stave churches were considered obsolete in the Middle Ages and were replaced. In Denmark , traces of post churches have been found at several locations, and there are also parts still in existence from some of them. A plank of one such church

6370-462: The rings as the plant overgrows the scar. The rings are more visible in trees which have grown in temperate zones , where the seasons differ more markedly. The inner portion of a growth ring forms early in the growing season, when growth is comparatively rapid (hence the wood is less dense) and is known as "early wood" (or "spring wood", or "late-spring wood" ); the outer portion is the "late wood" (sometimes termed "summer wood", often being produced in

6468-454: The same locale, in overlapping fashion, chronologies can be built up—both for entire geographical regions and for sub-regions. Moreover, wood from ancient structures with known chronologies can be matched to the tree-ring data (a technique called 'cross-dating'), and the age of the wood can thereby be determined precisely. Dendrochronologists originally carried out cross-dating by visual inspection; more recently, they have harnessed computers to do

6566-482: The same subject, that of Christ expelling the money-lenders from the Temple . The results showed that the age of the wood was too late for any of them to have been painted by Hieronymus Bosch . While dendrochronology has become an important tool for dating oak panels, it is not effective in dating the poplar panels often used by Italian painters because of the erratic growth rings in poplar. The sixteenth century saw

6664-455: The second, with a raised roof and free-standing internal posts, usually called Type B. Those with the raised roof, Type B, are often further divided into two subgroups. The first of these, the Kaupanger group , have a whole arcade row of posts and intermediate posts along the sides and details that mimic stone capitals . These churches give an impression of a basilica . The other subgroup

6762-445: The secondary root xylem of perennial herbaceous plants . Similar seasonal patterns also occur in ice cores and in varves (layers of sediment deposition in a lake, river, or sea bed). The deposition pattern in the core will vary for a frozen-over lake versus an ice-free lake, and with the fineness of the sediment. Sclerochronology is the study of algae deposits. Some columnar cacti also exhibit similar seasonal patterns in

6860-536: The selection of trees for study of long time-spans. For instance, missing rings are rare in oak and elm trees. Critical to the science, trees from the same region tend to develop the same patterns of ring widths for a given period of chronological study. Researchers can compare and match these patterns ring-for-ring with patterns from trees which have grown at the same time in the same geographical zone (and therefore under similar climatic conditions). When one can match these tree-ring patterns across successive trees in

6958-455: The source of ships as well as smaller artifacts made from wood, but which were transported long distances, such as panels for paintings and ship timbers. Miyake events , such as the ones in 774–775 and 993–994 , can provide fixed reference points in an unknown time sequence as they are due to cosmic radiation. As they appear as spikes in carbon 14 in tree rings for that year all round the world, they can be used to date historical events to

7056-478: The stave church is "a brilliant translation of the Romanesque basilica from stone to wood" (" En genial oversettelse fra sten til tre av den romanske basilika "). Dietrichson claimed that Type B displays an influence from early Christian and Roman basilicas. The style was assumed to be transferred via Anglo-Saxon and Irish architecture, where only the particular roof construction was local. Dietrichson emphasized

7154-548: The stave church was the standard church building in Norway, even though the Catholic church preferred stone. All wooden churches in Norway before the reformation were constructed with staves. Log building is younger than stave building in Norway, and was introduced in residential buildings around year 1000. Stave building is not influenced by the log technique. Only 29 stave churches have survived in Norway. Most of these were built between 1150 and 1350. The word "stave church"

7252-429: The stone foundations have been laid approximately directly over the refilled postholes. Apart from different foundation methods, Jensenius believes that the pillar churches were essentially similar to stave churches. Of buildings from the Middle Ages with standing timber in load-bearing structures, only the churches in the last developed method of construction, the stave, have been left standing in our time. By lifting

7350-522: The strongest supports within the whole of Christianity." Church building was mentioned in the Gulatingsloven (Gulating Law), which was written down in the 1000s. In the chapter on Christianity, the 12th article states: If one man builds a church, either lendmann does it or a farmer, or whoever builds a church, shall keep the church and the plot in good condition. But if the church breaks down and corner posts fall, then he shall bring timber to

7448-519: The study of climate and atmospheric conditions during different periods in history from the wood of old trees. Dendrochronology derives from the Ancient Greek dendron ( δένδρον ), meaning "tree", khronos ( χρόνος ), meaning "time", and -logia ( -λογία ), "the study of". Dendrochronology is useful for determining the precise age of samples, especially those that are too recent for radiocarbon dating , which always produces

7546-400: The summer, though sometimes in the autumn) and is denser. Many trees in temperate zones produce one growth-ring each year, with the newest adjacent to the bark. Hence, for the entire period of a tree's life, a year-by-year record or ring pattern builds up that reflects the age of the tree and the climatic conditions in which the tree grew. Adequate moisture and a long growing season result in

7644-614: The surviving stave churches are in Norway. The only remaining medieval stave churches outside Norway are those of circa 1500 Hedared stave church in Sweden and one Norwegian stave church relocated in 1842 to contemporary Karpacz in the Karkonosze mountains of Poland. One other church, the Anglo-Saxon Greensted Church in England, exhibits many similarities with a stave church but is generally considered

7742-413: The task, applying statistical techniques to assess the matching. To eliminate individual variations in tree-ring growth, dendrochronologists take the smoothed average of the tree-ring widths of multiple tree-samples to build up a 'ring history', a process termed replication. A tree-ring history whose beginning- and end-dates are not known is called a 'floating chronology'. It can be anchored by cross-matching

7840-477: The term for the application of dendrochronology in archaeology. While archaeologists can date wood and when it was felled, it may be difficult to definitively determine the age of a building or structure in which the wood was used; the wood could have been reused from an older structure, may have been felled and left for many years before use, or could have been used to replace a damaged piece of wood. The dating of building via dendrochronology thus requires knowledge of

7938-424: The top of the posts ( staver ), shorter sills inserted between them support the upper wall ( tilevegg ). On top of the posts wall plates ( stavlægjer ) support the roof trusses, similar to those of the single-nave churches. The Kaupanger group consists of: Kaupanger , Urnes , Hopperstad , and Lom . The Borgund group consists of: Borgund , Gol , Hegge , Høre , Lomen , Ringebu , and Øye . This form of

8036-511: The turn of the last millennium, but new research shows that it was in use right up to the beginning of the 12th century. The only structure in this technique that has survived into our time is a wall in the middle section of Greensted Church in England. This led to this church being for a long time considered the oldest wooden structure in Europe. A common dating of the church was about the year 845, but modern dendrochronological dating estimates

8134-474: The wall could last many decades, even centuries. An archaeological excavation in Lund uncovered the postholes of several such churches. In post churches , the walls were supported by sills , leaving only the posts earth-bound. Such churches are easy to spot at archaeological sites as they leave very distinct holes where the posts were once placed. Occasionally some of the wood remains, making it possible to date

8232-556: The wall is filled in with planks, the frame is completed by a wall plate ( stavlægje ) with a groove on the bottom, holding the top ends of the wall planks. The whole structure consists of frames – a sill frame resting on the stone foundation, and the four wall frames made up of sills, corner posts and wall plate. The wall plates support the roof trusses, consisting of a pair of principal rafters and an additional pair of intersecting "scissor rafters". For lateral bracing, additional wooden brackets ( bueknær ) are inserted between

8330-405: The width of annual growth rings; by taking samples from different sites within a particular region, researchers can build a comprehensive historical sequence. The techniques of dendrochronology are more consistent in areas where trees grew in marginal conditions such as aridity or semi-aridity where the ring growth is more sensitive to the environment, rather than in humid areas where tree-ring growth

8428-592: The year. For example, wooden houses in the Viking site at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland were dated by finding the layer with the 993 spike, which showed that the wood is from a tree felled in 1021. Researchers at the University of Bern have provided exact dating of a floating sequence in a Neolithic settlement in northern Greece by tying it to a spike in cosmogenic radiocarbon in 5259 BC. Frost ring

8526-580: Was a "half-cross church" with only one cross arm measuring 7.9 × 9.1 meters. The first stave church had cross arms of 7.9 × 6.7 meters after expansion. Dietrichson was unsure whether the cross arms in the Møre churches were generally added in the lath construction or whether it was a medieval stave construction. He concluded that several were originally listed as cruciform churches in stakes, including Hareid, Volda, Vatne and Ørsta. For some other churches (Bremsnes and Kornstad on Nordmøre), contemporary sources say that

8624-521: Was a building hiatus, which coincided with the Black Death . However, there do exist unbroken chronologies dating back to prehistoric times, for example the Danish chronology dating back to 352 BC. Given a sample of wood, the variation of the tree-ring growths not only provides a match by year, but can also match location because climate varies from place to place. This makes it possible to determine

8722-539: Was a polling station for elections to the 1814 Norwegian Constituent Assembly which wrote the Constitution of Norway . This was Norway's first national elections. Each church parish was a constituency that elected people called "electors" who later met together in each county to elect the representatives for the assembly that was to meet in Eidsvoll later that year. Stave church A stave church

8820-437: Was also used for wall boards or panels. Emil Eckhoff in his Svenska stavkyrkor (1914–1916) also included wood-frame church buildings without posts. According to Norway's oldest written laws and Old Norwegian Homily Book , the consecration of the church was valid as long as the four corner posts were standing. One of the sermons in the old homily book is known as the "stave church sermon". The sermon dates from around 1100 and

8918-419: Was completed in 1657. By 1690, the old cemetery was full and a new cemetery was opened about 400 metres (1,300 ft) to the southwest of the existing church. The church quickly became too small for the parish. From 1707-1708, a new church was built beside the new cemetery southwest of the old church. When the new church was finished, the old church was torn down. The new church did not last very long. In 1792,

9016-412: Was converted into a cruciform church partly in log construction. According to Dietrichson, most stave churches were dismantled to make room for a new church, partly because the old church had become too small for the congregation, and partly because the stave church was in poor condition. Fire, storm, avalanche and decay were other reasons. In 1650 there were about 270 stave churches left in Norway, and in

9114-703: Was found in Jutland . The plank is now on display at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen and an attempt at reconstructing the church is a featured display at the Moesgård Museum near Aarhus . Marks created by several old post churches have also been found at the old stone church in Jelling . In Sweden, the medieval Hedared stave church was constructed c. 1500 at the same location as

9212-434: Was further developed by Anders Bugge and Roar Hauglid . Peter Anker believed that the influence from foreign masonry architecture was primarily in decorative details. Dendrochronology Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating ) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in a tree. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology ,

9310-602: Was masonry, the annex church could be a stave church. Masonry churches were mostly built in towns, along the coast, and in rich agricultural areas in Trøndelag and eastern Norway, as well as in the larger parishes in fjord districts in western Norway. No new churches were built in Norway during the 1400s and 1500s. Norway's stave churches largely disappeared until 1700 and were replaced by log buildings. Several stave churches were redesigned or enlarged using different techniques during 1600–1700; for instance, Flesberg Stave Church

9408-400: Was presumably performed at consecrations, or on their anniversaries. The sermon text is a theological interpretation of the building elements in the church. It names most of the building elements in the stave church, and can be a source of terminology and technique. For instance, the sermon says: "The four corner posts of the church are a symbol for the four gospels, because their teachings are

9506-412: Was the first person to mention that trees form rings annually and that their thickness is determined by the conditions under which they grew. In 1737, French investigators Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon examined the effect of growing conditions on the shape of tree rings. They found that in 1709, a severe winter produced a distinctly dark tree ring, which served as

9604-579: Was thought about 1000 were built; recent research has increased this estimate and it is now believed there may have been closer to 2000. Norwegian stave churches older than the 1100s are known only from written sources or from archaeological excavations, but written sources are sparse and difficult to interpret. Only 271 masonry churches were constructed in Norway during the same period, of which 160 still exist, while in Sweden and Denmark there were 900 and 1800 masonry churches respectively. Frostathing Law and Gulating law rules about "corner posts" show that

#910089