Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37 (3) 2009

Annotation:  Middle Paleolithic Industries of the Early Late Pleistocene (OIS 5) in the Southwestern Part of East Evidence of Environmental Instability of the Lake Baikal Area after the Last Glaciation (Based on P Radiocarbon Chronology of Neolithic and Bronze Age Cultures in Yakutia Clay Balls from Suchu Island as Neolithic Sacral Symbols Models of Metal Production in the Near East (Chalcolithic – Middle Bronze Age) Chinese Inscription on the Lacquer Cup from Noin Ula Mound 20 (Mongolia) Horse Forehead Pieces from the Kuban Region The Pakhomovskaya Culture of the Late Bronze Age Stone Stele Bearing a “Sun-Headed” Deity on the Tuim River, Khakassia (In commemoration of the Finni Methodological Issues in the Digital Mapping of Archaeological Sites The Church of the Saviour from Zashiversk: The Dendrochronological Aspect The “Harlequin”: An Ostyak Idol “Technological Eschatology” in Modern Traditions of Popular Orthodoxy and among the Old Believers o Mummery in the Calendar Rites of German Settlers in Siberia Silver of Kazakh Zergers: Traditions in Modern Jewelry Art Dental Remains from Mound 20 at Noin-Ula, Mongolia The Origin of the Medieval Population of the Novgorod Republic) (10th–13th centuries): A Craniometri   

The Church of the Saviour from Zashiversk: The Dendrochronological Aspect

V.S. Myglan, I.Y. Slusarenko, and A.Y. Mainicheva.

This article focuses on dating the unique monument of wooden architecture from the time of the Russian colonization of Siberia – the Church of the Saviour from the transpolar town of Zashiversk. For the fi rst time the church is studied using dendrochronological analysis. This method is based on variable annual growth of tree-rings, and provides the most objective date with an accuracy of up to a year. Exceptionally representative samples of specimens from 95 logs, belonging to different walls and different areas of timberwork in each room of the church, were used for analysis. For establishing the calendar dates, the generalized tree-ring chronologies, based on standing larch in the area adjacent to the monument were used. Based on the dates of harvesting the trees that have preserved the ring adjacent to the bark, it is possible to say that the bulk of timber was harvested in 1709–1711. The construction of the building might have taken place either at the same time or soon after 1711. It cannot be excluded that some of the logs with earlier dates initially formed a part of an earlier structure, and were later reused for building the present Church of the Saviour from Zashiversk.

Keywords: Wooden architecture, Siberia, history, architecture, dendrochronology.