Dendrochronological study of wooden constructions unearthed from a subalpine peat bog from Maramureș Mts, Romania

Two simple wooden constructions were found in a peat bog, called ‘Vinderel 3’, located in the Maramureș Mts. (Romania). They were constructed from spruce timber and a 67-year-long floating chronology, called MM8, was developed using the cross-dated tree-ring width series of six samples. An AMS 14C age dates the wood and provides target intervals for dendrochronological cross-dating to the late-18th century and the mid-17th century. Running statistics with the nearby reference chronologies peaked at 1664 CE, suggesting the possible felling date of the timber contributing to MM8. The wooden constructions were likely built soon after the felling date in the early second half of the 17th century CE. We think that the timbered constructions can be installed at the edge of the former lake, on the one hand, to protect the lakeshore from trampling, on the other hand, to protect the drinking livestock from slipping to the swampy peat bog. These wooden constructions, with their inferred likely date to the mid-17th century CE provided the earliest material evidence for the agropastoral activity in the subalpine zone of the Maramureș Mts.