A dendroarchaeological tree-ring dataset of Abies alba from historic buildings in the French Pyrenees (BENDYS project ANR-19-CE03-0010)

We carried out an archaeological census in the northern slopes of the Pyrenees which led to the acquisition of 393 tree-ring series from fir (Abies alba Mill.), deciduous oak (deciduous Quercus), beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), pine (Pinus sp.) and poplar (Populus). We successfully cross-dated 57 series from fir trees and 67 short series (less than 50 rings). The other 269 series remain undated. The tree-ring series were extracted from building timbers used in barns located in the immediate vicinity of current old-growth beech-fir forests. The wooden pieces also comes from houses and churches close to the forests, where the timbers are also preserved in the frameworks, ceilings and joineries. The samples were taken by coring and sectioning. Two chronologies for fir (Abies alba Mill.) were dated for two periods: 1446-1655 and 1679-1952 AD. The ring series measurements were performed with a LINTAB measurement table combined with TSAP-Win program for recording measured values. The series were cross-dated with the DendronIV program. Our study provides the first dated tree ring series for fir in the French Pyrenees. This research was funded by the ANR-BENDYS project ANR-19-CE03-0010 led by Vanessa Py-Saragaglia and the GEODE CNRS UMR 5602 laboratory. We would like to thank Sylvie Ladet (INRAE Dynafor UMR 1201, Auzeville-Tolosane, France) and Emilie Lerigoleur for their contribution.