When a piece of oak timber from a medieval coffin or building is examined, the pattern of its rings can be matched against the reference chronology to determine precisely when the tree was alive and, crucially, when it was felled.

If the outer ring beneath the bark is preserved, felling can sometimes be dated to within a single year.

The oak coffin in which Conquest Man was buried yielded a dendrochronological date of approximately 1079 for the felling of the timber.

This date is significant in multiple ways.

It places the burial thirteen years after the Battle of Hastings in October 1066.

Norman rule was firmly established by 1079.