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Timber for the trenches: a new perspective on archaeological wood from First World War trenches in Flanders Fields

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2018

Kristof Haneca ,
Sjoerd van Daalen  and
Hans Beeckman
Kristof Haneca*
Affiliation:
Flanders Heritage Agency, Havenlaan 88, Box 5, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Sjoerd van Daalen
Affiliation:
Van Daalen Dendrochronologie, H.G. Gooszenstraat 1, Kamer 15, 7415CL Deventer, the Netherlands
Hans Beeckman
Affiliation:
Royal Museum for Central Africa, Wood Biology Service, Leuvensesteenweg 13, 3080 Tervuren, Belgium
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

During the First World War (1914–1918), the construction and maintenance of the Western Front in North-west Europe required huge quantities of timber. Although archaeological investigations regularly uncover well-preserved wooden structures and objects, studies of the timber's provenance are rare. The authors combine archival research with wood-species identification and tree-ring analysis of a large assemblage of wooden objects excavated from former trenches on the Western Front. The results show that most objects and structures were made using fast-growing European species, with evidence for the small-scale but continuous importation of North American timber.

Keywords

Western FrontFirst World Wardendrochronologywood anatomybattlefield archaeology
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 92 , Issue 366 , December 2018 , pp. 1619 - 1639
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2018 

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