Chronological Analysis of Tsegi Phase Sites in Northeastern Arizona

Dendrochronology provides two basic types of information useful for archaeological interpretation: chronological-archaeological and nonchronological. The former derives from the assignment of absolute dates to prehistoric remains through the use of the techniques of dendrochronological analysis. Nonchronological information of two types, cultural-historical and environmental, may be derived from archaeological tree-ring collections. Cultural-historical information involves the recognition of unique historic events and the identifica­ tion of certain cultural practices, such as the stockpiling or reuse of timbers. Recoverable environmental data include the prehistoric distributions of various species of tree and paleoclimatic reconstruc­ tions derived from dendroclimatic analyses. Most archaeological use of dendrochronological data has emphasized the chronological-archaeological aspect. This orientation produced a large number of absolutely dated sites that have been compared with one another to isolate contemporaneous regional varia­ tions and to study the processes and rates of culture change. However, the nonchronological aspects of the data have been neglected, and the full potential of dendrochronology for archaeological interpretation has rarely been achieved. This paper presents the results of several experiments designed to explore and illuminate the contributions made by dendrochronological analyses to archaeological interpretation.