Wood from three archaeological sites in Croatia and its research potential

We have analyzed wood from three archaeological sites in Croatia. The samples of wood were in various conditions (charcoal, wet wood, and waterlogged wood). This paper presents the preparation of archaeo-logical wood for identification and dendrochronological analysis and the results of wood identification. We identi-fied 14 samples of fir (Abies alba Mill.), 4 samples of beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and 10 samples of oak (Quercus sp.). We analyzed dendrochronologically 16 samples that contained more than 45 tree-rings and attempted to date them with the Slovenian reference chronologies. Dendrochronological dating was not successful, because there were not enough samples from individual sites and the samples had not enough tree-rings or were not well preser-ved. Dating without local chronologies, which have not been developed for Croatia yet, is less probable, especially if a small number of badly preserved samples is analyzed. This paper also presents instructions as how to collect, prepare and store samples of wood from archaeological and cultural-historical sites so as to provide optimal use of their research potential.