Tree Rings and Pollen: Exploring Humanity's Past Through the Eyes of Plants

What if history has its own silent witnesses? They left no chronicles or memoirs, yet their testimony is often more precise than any written record. Those witnesses are plants. For centuries, they have preserved invaluable archives of human history—we simply needed to learn how to read them.
In this engaging introduction to dendrochronology and palynology, biologist and science writer Denis Novikov shows how tree rings and fossil pollen have become indispensable tools for historians and archaeologists. How did the "year without a summer" in 1816 contribute to the creation of Frankenstein? What accounts for the extraordinary sound of Stradivari's violins? How are a volcanic eruption in Peru and Russia's Time of Troubles connected? And who were the mysterious Sikhirtya of the Yamal Peninsula?
The answers to these and many other questions are hidden in the growth rings of ancient trees and microscopic grains of pollen.
The book presents ten fascinating historical detective stories in which plants serve as the key witnesses. Their evidence helps solve crimes, expose forged works of art, precisely date major historical events, and reveal how past climatic catastrophes shaped the destinies of entire civilizations.
Tree Rings and Pollen is a journey into the past through nature's silent archives, bringing to life one of the most objective and impartial records of the history of our world.

Denis Novikov. Tree Rings and Pollen: Exploring Humanity's Past Through the Eyes of Plants. — St. Petersburg: Piter, 2026.
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