The Suceava oak chronology: A new 804 years long tree-ring chronology bridging the gap between central and south Europe

Abstract Although the importance of centuries-long tree ring width oak chronologies in dating wood, eastern European regions are still lacking a reference chronology. To fill this geographical gap, we combined living and historical chronologies from the Moldova region, including part of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Here we present the “Suceava oak chronology” as the first 804 years long chronology continuously covering the 1216–2019 period. Our analyses further revealed the strong teleconnection of the Suceava oak chronology with south European ones. The link between Romania and northern Turkey chronologies is of particular importance in the context of the high abundance of undated subfossil and archaeological/historical oak wood in eastern Europe and intense wood trades with central Europe in XV-XVII centuries. The availability of the Suceava oak chronology will provide a good base for precise dating and climatic reconstructions.