Woodland exploitation by early modern military camps and their impact on the forest environment. Anthracological analysis from ninove-doorn noord (1692-1693, 1745, belgium) - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2023

Woodland exploitation by early modern military camps and their impact on the forest environment. Anthracological analysis from ninove-doorn noord (1692-1693, 1745, belgium)

Résumé

Few anthracological studies exist for the modern period (1400-1900 AD) in Europe, in particular for military camps. Nevertheless, woodland resources were important for armies to ensure their needs during conflicts. This paper presents the preliminary results of the charcoal analysis of Ninove-Doorn Noord, a set of militaries camps located in northern Belgium (1692-1693: Nine Year's War; 1745: war of the Austrian Succession). The goals are to observe the dynamic of the landscape between the two periods and to improve our understanding of the firewood supplies of modern armies at local scale. Currently, this study focuses on the taxonomic identification of more than 4,000 charcoal fragments. In total, 100 samples from 74 structures are being analyzed. The first results reveal that the troops mainly gathered firewood in riparian formations dominated by Alnus, Salicaceae and Fraxinus. The charcoal assemblages of the earliest camp (1692-93) present a higher taxonomic diversity than the ones of the following camp (1745), respectively 15 and 10 taxa. Furthermore, the strong presence of Salicaceae charcoals in 1745’s assemblage suggests a degradation of the environment probably due to anthropogenic pressure. These preliminary results highlight the potential of anthracology to improve our knowledge of the impact of warfare on woodland history. This analysis takes place in the frame of a doctoral dissertation (2022-2025) untitled: “The impact of conflicts on European forests. First application of charcoal analysis to modern military camps from the XVIIth to the beginning of the XIXth century”. To our knowledge, this dissertation constitutes the first application of charcoal analysis on modern military camps in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. This project aims to understand the management of wood resources during wars and the impact of conflicts on the diversity of forests, which played a major role in military strategies.
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Dates et versions

hal-04358124 , version 1 (21-12-2023)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04358124 , version 1

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Germain Hello, Aurélie Salavert, Koen Deforce, Arne Verbrugge, Cécile Callou. Woodland exploitation by early modern military camps and their impact on the forest environment. Anthracological analysis from ninove-doorn noord (1692-1693, 1745, belgium). 8th International Anthracology Meeting, João Tereso; Filipe Vaz, Aug 2023, Porto (Portugal), Portugal. ⟨hal-04358124⟩

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