Historical Records

However, when archaeologists want to know the absolute date of a site, they can often go beyond simple stratigraphy. | The series of strata in an archaeological dig enables an excavator to date recovered objects relatively, if not absolutely. | Historical records, coins, and other data-bearing objects can help - if they exist. But even prehistoric sites contain records - written in nature's hand. | For example, tree rings, Dendrochronology (literally, ?tree time?) dates wooden artefacts by matching their ring patterns to known records, which, in some areas of the world, span several thousand years.