Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T01:30:12.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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: kristof.haneca@vlaanderen.be)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amat, J.-P. 1999. La forêt entre guerre et paix 1870–1995: étude de biogéographie historique sur l'Arc meusien de l'Argonne à la Woëvre. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Université Lille 1.Google Scholar
American Forestry. 1919. 20th Engineers (Forestry) record of development and production. American Forestry 25: 1111–12.Google Scholar
Bader, A. 2011. Wald und Krieg. Wie sich in Kriegs- und Krisenzeiten die Waldbewirtschaftung veränderte. Die deutsche Forstwirtschaft im Ersten Weltkrieg. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Universitätsverlag Göttingen.Google Scholar
Baillie, M.G.L. & Pilcher, J.R.. 1973. A simple crossdating program for tree-ring research. Tree-Ring Bulletin 33: 7–14.Google Scholar
Barton, P. & Doyle, P.. 2005. The battlefields of the First World War: from the first battle of Ypres to Passchendaele. Oxford: Osprey.Google Scholar
Barton, P., Doyle, P. & Vandewalle, J.. 2004. Beneath Flanders Fields: the tunnellers’ war 1914–18. Staplehurst: Spellmount.Google Scholar
Bird, C.W. & Davies, J.B.. 1919. The Canadian Forestry Corps; its inception, development and achievements. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Bracke, M., Ervynck, A., Lentacker, A., Bastiaens, J., Deforce, K., Haneca, K., Moens, J. & Verdegem, S.. 2016. Vondst en context: een Duitse afvalkuil uit Houthulst (WO I). Conflict in Contact 4: 4–18.Google Scholar
Buis, J. 1985. Historia Forestis. Nederlandse bosgeschiedenis. PhD dissertation. Wageningen University. Available at: http://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/wurpubs/80973 (accessed 29 October 2018).Google Scholar
Clout, H.D. 1996. After the ruins: restoring the countryside of northern France after the Great War. Exeter: University of Exeter Press.Google Scholar
Da Ronch, F., Caudullo, G. & de Rigo, D.. 2016. Pseudotsuga menziesii in Europe: distribution, habitat, usage and threats, in San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., de Rigo, D., Caudullo, G., Durrant, T. Houston & Mauri, A. (ed.) European atlas of forest tree species: 146–47. Luxembourg: European Commission.Google Scholar
Dassen, P. 2014. Sprong in het duister. Duitsland en de Eerste Wereldoorlog. Herengracht: Uitgeverij Van Oorschot.Google Scholar
Davies, A.H. 1920. Twentieth engineers, France, 1917–1918–1919. Portland (OR): Dimm & Sons.Google Scholar
Deseyne, A. 1990. Dugouts. Het werk van de Tunneling Companies na de Slag bij Passendale, Sept 1917–April 1918. Unpublished archival study, Zonnebeke.Google Scholar
Dewilde, M., Pype, P., de Meyer, M., Demeyere, F., Lammens, W., Degryse, J., Wyffels, F. & Saunders, N.J.. 2004. Belgium's new department of First World War archaeology. Antiquity Project Gallery 78(301). Available at: http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/saunders301/ (accessed 29 October 2018).Google Scholar
Dewilde, M., de Meyer, M. & Saunders, N.. 2007. Archeologie van de'Groote Oorlog’. De Vlaamse situatie. Monumenten, Landschappen en Archeologie 26: 37–54.Google Scholar
Eckstein, D. & Bauch, J.. 1969. Beitrag zur Rationalisierung eines dendrochronologischen Verfahrens und zur Analyse seiner Aussagesicherheit. Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt 88: 230–50. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02741777Google Scholar
Finlayson, D. 2008. Hades’ henchmen: an abridged history of the Australian tunnelling companies in France and Belgium: 1916–1919. Sabretache 49: 11–24.Google Scholar
Greely, W.B. 1919. The American lumberjack in France. American Forestry 25: 1093–108.Google Scholar
Haneca, K. 2016. Hout in de loopgraven van WOI: van olm tot Douglas. Conflict in Contact 4: 51–61.Google Scholar
Haneca, K., Cufar, K. & Beeckman, H.. 2009. Oaks, tree-rings and wooden cultural heritage: a review of the main characteristics and applications of oak dendrochronology in Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2008.07.005Google Scholar
Heyde, S. 2014. Het herstel van het bocagelandschap in de zuidelijke Westhoek na de Eerste Wereldoorlog. Monumenten, Landschappen & Archeologie 33: 28–41.Google Scholar
Keegan, J. 2000. The First World War. New York: Vintage Canada.Google Scholar
Klaassen, R.K.W.M. 2008. Bacterial decay in wooden foundation piles—patterns and causes: a study of historical pile foundations in the Netherlands. International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation 61: 45–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibiod.2007.07.006Google Scholar
Landolt, M. 2012. Archéologie de la Grande Guerre. La galerie allemande du Kilianstollen à Carspach. Archéologia 499: 30–44.Google Scholar
MacLean, M. 2004. Farming and forestry on the Western front 1915–1919. Sheffield: Old Pond.Google Scholar
Moore, B. 1919. French forests in the War. American Forestry 25: 1113–36.Google Scholar
Puyo, J.-Y. 2004. Les conséquences de la première guerre mondiale pour les forêts et les forestiers français. Revue Forestière Française 56: 573–84. https://doi.org/10.4267/2042/5123Google Scholar
Robertshaw, A. & Kenyon, D.. 2008. Digging the trenches: the archaeology of the Western Front. Barnsley: Pen & Sword.Google Scholar
Saunders, N.J. 2010. Killing time: archaeology and the First World War. Stroud: The History Press.Google Scholar
Stichelbaut, B. & Chielens, P.. 2014. The Great War seen from the air: in Flanders Fields, 1914–1918. Brussels: Mercatorfonds.Google Scholar
Stichelbaut, B., Gheyle, W., Eetvelde, V. Van, Meirvenne, M. Van, Saey, T. & Note, N.. 2017. The Ypres Salient 1914–1918: historical aerial photography and the landscape of war. Antiquity 91: 235–49. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2016.260Google Scholar
Tallier, P.A. 2004. Entre déboisements, boisements et reboisements, deux siècles d'histoire des forêts belges (1750–1950). Forêt Wallonne 68: 8–19.Google Scholar
Tegel, W. & Hakelberg, D.. 2013. La dendrochronologie, in: Schnitzler, B. & Landholt, M. (ed.) À l'est, du nouveau! Archéologie de La Grande Guerre en Alsace et en Lorraine: 111–13. Strasbourg: Éditions des Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg.Google Scholar
The War Office. 1922. Statistics of the military effort of the British Empire during the Great War 1914–1920. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Tozer, R. & Strickland, D.. 1980. A pictorial history of Algonquin Provincial Park. Whitney: Friends of Algonquin Park in cooperation with Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.Google Scholar
Vancoillie, J. & Blieck, K.. 2016. Bouwen aan het front. Loopgraven, schuilplaatsen en betonbunkers van het Duitse leger aan het Ieperfront 1914–1918. Passendale: Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917.Google Scholar
Van Acker, J., Windt, I. De, Haneca, K., Beeckman, H., Claeys, F., Vandenbussche, S., Vandewalle, J., Robeyst, N. & Willems, A.. 2017. Underground timber constructions from the First World War are well preserved after 100 years. Proceedings of the IRG48 Annual Meeting, 4–8 June 2017, Ghent, Belgium. Stockholm: The International Research Group on Wood Protection.Google Scholar
Van Hollebeeke, Y., Stichelbaut, B. & Bourgeois, J.. 2014. From landscape of war to archaeological report: ten years of professional World War I archaeology in Flanders (Belgium). European Journal of Archaeology 17: 702–19. https://doi.org/10.1179/1461957114Y.0000000065Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Haneca et al. supplementary material

Haneca et al. supplementary material 1

Download Haneca et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 410.9 KB