: the correlation of distinctive traits between two or more sites or levels in different localities for purposes of chronology specifically : the establishment of the date of an archaeological site or level by comparing its distinctive traits with those of another site or level of known date that is assumed to be of

What does cross dating mean?

Crossdating is a technique that ensures each individual tree ring is assigned its exact year of formation. This is accomplished by matching patterns of wide and narrow rings between cores from the same tree, and between trees from different locations.