Moroccan Tree-Ring Chronology from 669 to 37 BCE

Tree-ring width data from Morocco provides a 706-year climate proxy record from 669 to 37 BCE. NOAA's World Data Service for Paleoclimatology archives this chronology, originally published in 1987. The data are part of the International Tree-Ring Data Bank collection for Northern Africa.

Use Cases

• Reconstruct past precipitation and drought cycles in Northern Africa using annual tree-ring width variations.
• Calibrate the Boulzane chronology against other regional tree-ring records to validate cross-dating accuracy.
• Analyze the frequency of extreme growth years (narrow rings) as proxies for severe climatic events during the 1st millennium BCE.

Strengths

• Covers a continuous 706-year period, providing a multi-century climate record.
• Data is curated and archived by NOAA's authoritative World Data Service for Paleoclimatology.

Limitations

• The dataset is temporally stale, with no updates since its original publication in 1987.
• Geographic coverage is limited to a single site (Boulzane) in Morocco, reducing regional representativeness.
• The raw measurement data and sample depth per year are unknown, limiting reproducibility checks.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), World Data Service (WDS) for Paleoclimatology.

Collection Method

Tree-ring analysis (dendrochronology), likely measuring ring widths from sampled trees.

Time Range

669 to 37 BCE (calendar years before present).

Freshness

1987-01-01

Geography

Boulzane, Morocco, Northern Africa.