Prehistoric pile-dwellings: dendroarchaeology in the southwestern Balkans

A number of wetland archaeological sites have been identified around the lakes in the southwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula, however only a limited number have been excavated. The constantly wet, low-oxygen depositional environment on such sites provides excellent conditions for wood preservation. Since 2018, more than 1800 remains of construction woods have been sampled from these prehistoric sites, mostly from the Lakes of Ohrid and Kastoria. Hundreds of these samples have been measured and cross-dated, and now represent the first prehistoric centennial and multi-centennial tree-ring chronologies from the lakes region, covering various periods of the local Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze and Iron Age. The dominant wood species utilised on the sites are members of the genus Quercus, but significant numbers of junipers and pines were also recovered, as well as various deciduous species. These floating tree-ring chronologies were anchored through radiocarbon dating and wiggle-matching. The TRW chronologies will provide the chronological backbone for integrating various lines of ongoing research on these wetland archaeological sites.