An absolutely dated mid-Holocene English yew chronology offers new opportunities for archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research

Bibliographic Data

ID12267189
AuthorsTatiana Bebchuk (0000-0002-3952-2290, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, corresponding author), Darren Davies (Swansea University), Neil J Loader (0000-0002-6841-1813, Swansea University), Otmar Urban (0000-0002-1716-8876, Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic), Tito Arosio (0000-0002-1567-5292, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge), Lukas Wacker (0000-0002-8215-2678, Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETHZ, Switzerland), Natálie Pernicová (0000-0003-0418-7813, Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic), Josef Čáslavský (0000-0002-2023-6892, Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic), Miroslav Trnka (0000-0003-4727-8379, Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic), Mirek Tnka (Czech Academy of Sciences, Global Change Research Institute), Alexander V Kirdyanov (0000-0002-6797-4964, Siberian Federal University), Delindus R Brown (0000-0002-5361-6664, School of Natural and Built Environment, The Queen’s University, UK), Brown Dc (Queen's University Belfast), Jan Esper (0000-0003-3919-014X, Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic), Clive Oppenheimer (0000-0003-4506-7260, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge), Ulf Büntgen (0000-0002-3821-0818, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge), Büntgen Ulf (Masaryk University)
Year2026
Volume36
Issue4
Pages382-389
Publication date2026-02-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Holocene (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0959-6836 • E-ISSN: 1477-0911
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/09596836251407634
PMID41816365
OpenAlexW7127388156
LanguageEN
References cited69

Research on Holocene climate variability and human history greatly benefits from annually resolved and absolutely dated tree-ring chronologies. The quality and quantity of such records, however, decline back in time, with little tree-ring evidence available for the Early and Middle Holocene. Here, we present a tree-ring width (TRW) chronology from 100 subfossil yews ( Taxus baccata L.) excavated from peat-rich soils in the Fenland region of eastern England. To precisely date the record, we measured stable oxygen (δ 18 O) isotopic ratios of over 1500 tree rings from a subset of 12 disc samples and used an absolutely dated oak ( Quercus spp.) δ 18 O chronology from the same region for cross-dating. Statistically significant isotopic agreement between the two species precisely dates the yew TRW chronology from 2668 to 2213 years BCE ( r = 0.4, t -value = 7.9, probability of error > 10 6 , Isolation Factor > 10 3 ). This 456-year period in the mid-Holocene marks the Neolithic-to-Bronze Age transition, coincides with the spread of the Bell Beaker culture across the British Isles, and precedes the still debated 4.2 ka climate anomaly. Emphasizing the advantages of tree-ring stable isotopes, our absolutely dated yew record offers new opportunities for archaeological interpretations and palaeoclimatological reconstructions in eastern England and beyond. We further expect our results to help dating the Icelandic eruptions of Katla and Hekla 4 and refining the next radiocarbon calibration curve

Archaeological record · Chronology · Dendrochronology · Holocene · Period (music · Radiocarbon dating · Radiometric dating · Subfossil · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Tree-ring climate responses