Halifax

Telling Time with Tree Rings: Dendroarchaeological Investigations at the Morris Building

Jonathan Fowler and Colin Larocque

7:30pm
Thursday September 20 2012

Interdisciplinary research has recently brought about new discoveries concerning the origins of the Morris Building. It now appears that the Morris Building may be the oldest timber house in Halifax, although it may never have been owned by Charles Morris Sr., the noted (and perhaps controversial) Chief Justice and Chief Surveyor. Additional results raise interesting questions about the origin of the materials used to build the structure. In this illustrated talk, two members of the research team will explain how tree-ring dating works, how archaeologists have benefited from this method, and how its application in this case brought a new perspective to this storied structure.

Jonathan Fowler has conducted archaeological excavations on prehistoric and historic sites in Canada as well as overseas, but his primary area of research has been colonial Nova Scotia/Acadie/Mi'kma'ki. Since 2001 he has directed archaeological excavations at Grand-Pré, and when he is not walking ploughed fields looking for pre-Deportation Acadian villages, he can be found teaching Archaeology at Saint Mary's University in Halifax.

After completing his Master's and Ph.D at the University of Victoria, Colin Laroque moved to Mount Allison University in 2003, where he set up the first dendrochronology laboratory in Atlantic Canada. The Mount Allison Dendrochronology Lab (MAD Lab) was formed in January of 2004 and has concentrated its research efforts in the four Atlantic Canadian provinces. Although initially interested in past climates, The MAD Lab has initiated archaeological, geomorphological and ecological investigations all using tree rings and the links to their growing environments contained within their ring patterns.

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