DATING PREHISTORIC BOG-FIRES IN NORTHERN ENGLAND TO CALENDAR YEARS BYLONG-DISTANCE CROSS-MATCHING OF PINE CHRONOLOGIES

The ages of prehistoric fires can be approximated by radiocarbon datin g of charcoal or associated material, but such dating is often inaccur ate and at best imprecise. Pine trunks preserved in British and Irish peats occasionally show firescars, which might be dated through dendro chronology to yield calendar-year dates. However, unlike oak, there is no master pine chronology to provide absolute dates, so dating is dep endent on interspecies cross-matching; for sites in the British Isles with no dated oaks, calendar-year dating of prehistoric pines has hith erto proved impossible. We present a first success in dating, accurate ly and precisely, prehistoric fire events recorded in subfossil bog-pi ne trunks, using long-distance cross-matching of pine chronologies bet ween White Moss, Cheshire, and the Humberhead Levels, England. Results demonstrate a bog-fire in Cheshire in spring 2800 BC, and again in 27 10 BC, between spring and summer. Further successful long-distance cro ss-matching of pine would permit international climatological comparis ons. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.