THE PARAMETERS OF THE ENVIRONMENT OF DEPOSITION AND MOLECULAR ANALYSES OF WATERLOGGED ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD FROM THE EARLY MEDIEVAL SITE OF CZERMNO IN EASTERN POLAND

The following paper presents an environmental examination and the results of the selected analyses of archaeological waterlogged oak wood (Quercus sp.) obtained from excavations carried out at the early medieval site of Czermno in eastern Poland near the Ukrainian border. Due to the good state of preservation of the wood tissue (De Jong's classification class III - maximum moisture content Umax < 185%) and its deposition in near anaerobic layers (reed peat and calcareous gyttja) an attempt was made to obtain the DNA sequence from samples acquired from the uncovered historical construction. In the course of the research, a DNA sequence was obtained from one sample derived from the trial pit W4/2014, the radiocarbon dated to 776-982 calAD. A comparison of the DNA data extracted from the historical wood to two sequences obtained from the trees (Quercus robur L.) growing near the site of Czermno, indicates clear similarities between each of them. The DNA sequence obtained from the archaeological oak wood confirms the assumption that proximate anaerobic layers, under specific conditions, can inhibit the degradation of DNA structure.