Know Your History from Tree Growth Rings

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How old is a tree? If it is not in a tropical area, its age can be determined from the circle of its trees. And in these circles not only the age of this tree, but also its history is written. why so?


Changes in rainfall and temperature over the years mean that the growth rate of these trees also changes year by year. Grows rapidly at some point in the year and stops at some point. The speed at which you grow depends on the weather. When his circles are counted, it will be his age. For example, if there are 191 circles, then this is its age and the tree was born in 1828. The thickness of each circle indicates how much rain or drought there was this year. That is, it is a message written in Morse code.


If any old wood has been found, Dendro Chronologists will first look at the circles of the wood. Note the pattern of their thickness. Then compare this pattern with other wooden beams found here. For example, if a 400-year-old tree is cut down in 2019 with a difficult pattern of thirteen colors, five wide, two narrow and six wide. This shows that the weather was like this between 1631 and 1643. 


Now if we find wood at the same place which has 332 colors and we don’t know how old it is but if the same pattern is seen in the seventh color when counting from outside then we will know that its tree Was demolished in 1650 (seven years after 1643). And this tree itself was born in 1318. It will also reveal the climatic patterns of the area from 1318 to 1650. Then we go further into the history of the area Can go backwards And you can find wood that has been cut somewhere between these years.


Dandro-chronologists have made thousands of years of history in many parts of the world with such techniques written in the color of trees. Patterns depend on local weather patterns and the patterns read are for a geographical area. Once records have been made, archaeologists identify the wood when it was demolished by looking at the artifacts found to study any civilization. All civilizations have used wood. The trunk cut in the forest is used to identify when the surviving trunk was a complete tree. An added bonus is that it shows how the weather in the area has changed. When did it rain, when did the famine come? Archaeologists are still struggling to gather enough evidence before reaching the final conclusions about the impact of the weather on the human population, population fluctuations and the rise and fall of civilizations. Even those who have no successors in this world.


For the reader, this old history is written in different places and in different ways. This circle of trees is just one of them.

Naeem Javid Muhammad Hassani is working as Conservator of Forests in Balochistan Forest & Wildlife Department (BFWD). He is the CEO of Tech Urdu (techurdu.net) Forestrypedia (forestrypedia.com), All Pak Notifications (allpaknotifications.com), Essayspedia, etc & their YouTube Channels). He is an Environmentalist, Blogger, YouTuber, Developer & Vlogger.

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