Don O'Meara

Interdisciplinary studies are an integral part of archaeological methodology. Archaeology itself emerged as a distinct discipline from development within fields such as antiquarianism, ethnography, geology, human geography etc. Archaeology, in turn, has also been able to play a direct role in the development of these disciplines. In particular the field of dendrochronology has benefited greatly from its very early association with archaeological practices. Indeed, dendrochronology itself was the product of an interdisciplinary experiment. A.E. Douglas (the founder of modern dendrochronology) was originally an astronomer at the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona studying sun-spot cycles. It was this relationship between archaeology and dendrochronology that interested me and was chosen as a M.A. thesis topic.

However, after research began into this theme it quickly emerged that a gulf has been developing in recent years between the two disciplines. This divide has been pointed out by Professor Mike Baillie of Queens University Belfast, who played a major part in the development of the Irish oak dendrochronological record developed since the late 1970s. Professor Baillie has repeatedly called for greater philosophical interaction between archaeology and dendrochronology, but for many archaeologists dendrochronology has remained simply a dating technique rather than a science which opens wider fundamental questions as to the nature of the archaeological timescale (the utilization of absolute dendrochronological dates against the relatively rough dates of radiometric techniques), and the use of dendrochronology in the reconstruction of past climatic changes. Since the late 1990s Professor Baillie, and some others, have raised some of these issues in both the academic and popular press. These studies themselves have been of a multidisciplinary nature, using information widely from fields such as the earth sciences, history, mythology and astrology, but have not been widely taken up by archaeologists.

This presentation hopes to offer an archaeologists perspective on the problems encountered by the author when examining these interdisciplinary studies. Topics dealt with will specifically include the experience of the author while researching their M.A. thesis; a work that involved studying information from fields not formally studied by the author.

Problems included:
• How to use various earth science data sets which appears to be conflicting in their conclusions.
• The complexity of earth science information not always being reflected in archaeological writing.
• The lack of engagement from archaeologists regarding issues raised by Professor Baillie (particularly in his works such as ‘Bad for Trees – Bad for Humans?’ and ‘Surprising Things you can Learn from Tree-rings’ as well as his popular books “Exodus to Arthur” and “The Celtic Gods: Comets in Irish Mythology”).
It is hoped that this presentation will show, from my experience, how interdisciplinary studies can raise difficult questions for the archaeologist and might raise more problems than they answer, forcing us as archaeologists to look back at our own subject with a more critical eye and perhaps accept that convenient conclusions are sometimes difficult to come by.