Dendrochronologia 26 (2008) 35–41 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Dating of tombs in Delingha, Qinghai Province, China, on the basis of a 2332-year tree-ring juniper chronology (Sabina przewalskii Kom) (1575 BC–756 AD) Shu-Zhi Wang a,Ã , Xuemei Shao b , Xinguo Xu c , Yongming Xiao c a Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Beijing 100710, China b Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China c Qinghai Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Xining 810007, China Received 9 January 2007; accepted 1 August 2007 Abstract Long tree-ring chronologies provide a unique calendar record that is of value for archaeological dating. This paper reports the results of the dendrochronological study of Przewalsk juniper (Sabina przewalskii Kom) excavated from Xiatatu tombs of the Tubo Kingdom in Guolimu County, Delingha City, Qinghai Province, China. A 2332-year tree- ring chronology was constructed from archaeological wood, and calendar years were assigned to date the tombs. For two of the tombs, the dating results are in accordance with the presumed dates as resulting from the tomb shapes and the excavated objects, especially the coffin panel paintings and historical documents. The date of the Tubo tombs provides a calendar scale for studying the cultural history of the Tuyuhun during the Sui dynasty and the southern and northern dynasties, and the cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries based on the pictures. r 2008 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. Keywords: Juniper chronology; Dendroarchaeology; Northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Introduction Long tree-ring chronologies can provide a unique calendar record that is of value for archaeological dating, for assessing the behavior of past human cultures, and for climatic, ecological, and environmental studies. Tree-ring chronologies are especially important for calibrating radiocarbon dates. The longer the chronology is, the greater its potential use. Since the 1970s, many researchers have worked on establishing a tree-ring chronology in the mountainous area of the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau with living trees (Zhuo et al., 1981; Kang et al., 1997, 2000; Shao et al., 2003, 2005; Zhang et al., 2003; Zhang and Qiu, 2007). On the basis of these studies, researchers have con- structed long tree-ring chronologies using living trees and archaeological wood (Wagner et al., 2002; Zhang et al., 2003; Wang, 2004; Zhang and Qiu, 2007). In 1999, the Archaeological Institute, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the Deutsches Archa¨ ologisches Institut, Eurasien Abteilung, built a 1316-year floating chronology for 45 planks and discs of Przewalsk juniper excavated from the tombs of the Tubo Kingdom in Dulan County on the eastern margin of the Qaidam basin region (Wagner et al., 2002). By cross-dating with the first published 1835-year chronology (Kang et al., 1997, 2000) based on living juniper trees growing in the mountains that range from 3100 to 3800 m in Dulan ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.de/dendro 1125-7865/$ - see front matter r 2008 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.dendro.2007.08.002 Ã Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 1064461051; fax: +86 1065135532. E-mail address: szwang@cass.org.cn (S.Z. Wang).