서울역사박물관 소장 가께수리 약장의 연륜연대 분석

Tree-Ring Dating for a Medicine Cabinet in Seoul Museum of History

Tree-ring dating can be used to date scientifically prehistoric timbers, historical build-ings or woodcrafts. It gives a calendar year to each tree ring and produces the felling dates of logs or wood panels. In this study, we applied tree-ring dating to a medicine cabinet in Seoul Museum of History. We obtained tree-ring data from radial or cross section by taking photo-graphs with a digital camera. The cabinet were dated A.D. 1821 to the last ring. It was about 50 year older than the previous medicine cabinets. Tree-ring patterns indicated that the origin of woods for the cabinet would be near Sorak mountains.