Wiggle-match dating the fortification of Køge

ABSTRACT

During archaeological fieldwork in the eastern part of the coastal city of Køge, situated on the east coast of the island of Zealand (Sjælland) in Denmark, remains of a rampart were found and, due to the lack of suitable material for dating via the more traditional dendrochronology, wiggle-match dating was conducted. This article aims at presenting the method used and discussing the result it provides for medieval and renaissance archaeology, in situations where there is an absence of dateable dendro-samples or for dating of non-oak samples.

Having unearthed the rampart remains, a major objective of the excavation became answering the question: Are the ramparts found those that were built during the short Swedish occupation of the town in 1658? And, could the C14 dating method provide us with a sufficient level of precision to answer this question? The results show that the ramparts found belonged to the medieval fortification of the town and have a long history of renewal and repair, allowing us to map the long life of the town despite the limitations of the small ‘key-hole’ style excavations. Applying this method more extensively on small-wood remains will perhaps help us to finally identify that elusive Swedish fortification.

KEYWORDS:

• Wiggle-match dating
• fortification
• medieval
• renaissance
• Køge

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank our colleagues Jeppe Færch-Jensen, Annemette Kjærgård, Jens Ulriksen and Mikkel H. Thomsen for reading through various drafts of this article, and the very useful suggestions they made. Jeppe Færch-Jensen has also kindly helped in the production of several of the maps used here. Thanks also to Jette Linaa for her identification of the green-glaze sherd. Costs of the excavations and analyses were covered by the developers, Køge Kyst og KLAR forsyning, as required by Danish legislation (The Museum act no. 1505).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.