The arboreal vegetational landscape of sinai during antiquity as evident from archaeological wood remains

Dendroarchaeological investigations carried out in Sinai permit reconstruction of the vegetational landscape and the macroclimate of the peninsula during the last 10,000 years. Timber was identified up to the species level, based on the microscopic three-dimensional structure of the wood. About 730 wood samples, from 27 archaeological sites and one monastery, dated to different periods along the archaeological profile, were identified. Results show that the same arboreal elements that exist today in Sinai were present in this area in antiquity, from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period until recent times. Microclimatic variations, evident from den-drochronological studies available for Sinai, were too small to cause changes in the arboreal vegetational landscape during the Holocene.