The Oldest Witness

The oldest tree with documented age still alive today was born in 3050 BC. The oldest tree with estimated age still alive today is either Jōmon Sugi or the Sisters, possibly born in the range between 6800 - 7200 BC.

This project came to life out of a random conversation in which the question of "When was the oldest tree born?" raised. For obvious reasons, no one knew so I was prompted to do some quick research. Unexpectedly, I found an actual data set out there revealing a rather fascinating story. I, for one, could not help but wonder what these trees have witnessed during all that time… Ironically, I thought they must "know" the answers to many questions from the past that still haunt us today. Trying to find out what these ages mean in practical terms, I visualized their intersection with history.

Here history is understood as a network of interconnected events due to the high complexity and interdependencies among them. It would have been misleading to compare historical time periods with a tree's life. Therefore, the events are shown as points in time rather than periods with a distinct start and end date.