Dendrohistorical research of modern period sites in Central and Eastern Siberia

For more than half a century the dendrochronological method was extensively employed in the studies of wood architecture in our country. However, main dendro-historical research was focused predominantly on the European part of Russia; relevant studies on the area on the other side of the Urals were not performed on a large scale until the early 21st century. This paper presents the results of historical and dendrochronological research carried out in Central and Eastern Siberia (Krasnoyarsk region, Irkutsk region, Republic of Buryatia, Trans-Baikal region, and Republic of Sakha). The paper shows that historical dendrochronology in this region has made substantial progress. Over the past 20 years 136 cultural heritage sites, including archaeological sites as well as defensive, religious and civil construction sites of the 17th - early 20th centuries have been dated, making it possible to make a quantum leap in generalization efforts and proceed to a new task, which is development of chronological typology of wood architecture sites. Digital methods of sample preparation and measurement of annual ring characteristics have been mainstreamed.