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Ancient & Prehistoric Wood
Ancient & Prehistoric Woods
OK here are some pics of old woods for your pleasure, enjoyment and information. These are ancient and one even prehistoric wood.
Note: none are fossilised or petrified (ie turned to stone) although some minerals may affect their colour and strength . They have all been cut with my wood bandsaw,
A) its an very old Casuarina which is just starting to go off colour (greying on outside and breaking down but enough sound wood for a few wood samples for IWS members, It came from a dry rocky creek bed in SE Queensland on a friends beef farm) . I don’t know the species or its age. The bold medullary rays give it away.
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B) Is a block of Bangalay or Southern Mahogany (Eucalyptus botryoides) a fairly common species in Gippsland Vic where I live. It was uncovered as a log after flooding in a river ... some made its way to me as payment for service (id and C dating).
It was identified by an academic friend in Sydney who enjoyed wood identification from microscopic features, Identifying eucalypts is particularly difficult if just given a sample. But knowing the region and likely species a comparison allowed a reasonably positive id. It was carbon dated at 2400 years old. The wood is now quite black from iron diffusing from burial and from its watery subsurface environment reacting with its tannins. Same as with ancient red gum. The wood of bangalay is coarser than redgum. This block shows the water weather top face and cut black almost featureless wood.
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C) Show two reference samples of ancient red gum which most here will be familiar with as it been commercialised by many. It been carbon dated at around 10,000 years. Its almost black or quite black. It grew around the last Ice Age and is occasionally uncovered in old gravel pits which were tributaries of the then Murray River,
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However much older wood wood has been and is being dug out in New Zealand and called Bog Kauri. Some is dated at at least 50,000 years the limit of Carbs dating. What is amazing is the quality of its wood and large slabs are still milled for furniture and table tops and wood crafs. Limited quantities make their way out of NZ, (I will post a Pic later)
D) Finally my oldest wood. Its a prehistoric softwood from just above the coal seam in La Trobe Valley. It could date from about 10 Million years before now. Dated from its geological strata it was found in near. Thats 1000 times older than ancient Red Gum and well before Man evolved it modern humans. Its is probably a Cupressinoxylon sp. Certainly an early softwood. It is light in weight still woody in nature, dark brown with some black streaks but with s nice sheen.
Euge
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