Lecture ''Time, History and Climate in Cyprus: the Cyprus Dendrochronology Laboratory and recent progress'' by Dr. Sturt Manning

Dr.Sturt Manning will give a keynote talk about the Cyprus Dendrochronology Laboratory and its recent progress at the 2nd International Congress on Archaeological Sciences in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. Dendrochronology provides key information for dating, provenance, climate, and environmental reconstruction, and is applicable to a wide range of contexts from the current and past natural landscape to built heritage and archaeological sites both on land and underwater. This paper reviews recent work and progress on the use of dendrochronology in Cyprus, and especially in the context of the recently established Cyprus Dendrochronology Laboratory.

The applications of dendrochronology to be discussed will range from forest studies aimed at dendroclimatic reconstruction and environmental and ecological applications to archaeological, architectural and art-historical studies aimed at providing cultural heritage information especially concerning dating and provenance. Examples will include drought history reconstruction for lower elevations on the island over the past few centuries to the dating and provenance of a range of cultural heritage contexts and objects of Ottoman to Medieval date. The application of integrated dendrochronology with radiocarbon to assist in building long chronologies, and to provide close dating for materials of Roman to prehistoric date from Cyprus, will also be illustrated.