Well-designed mountain houses feature the only dated Pinus sylvestris type timbers in the southern French Alps

Abstract

In the Southern French Alps, the Cervières Valley (near Briançon city) has traditional houses in which wood plays an important role, both in the buildings' structures and in the activities of the humans who lived there. The six studied farms bear witness to an architecture perfectly adapted to the mountain environment and to the daily and seasonal activities of the inhabitants. Dendrochronology has revealed four major phases of logging from the 16th to the 19th century. The 90 sampled timbers are from larch and Scots pine type, and are of similar age and calibre. The choice of species for building was probably made on the basis of their proximity to the building site. However, until now we have not yet identified any Scots pine t. from before the 18th century in the buildings. Does this represent a sampling bias or forest reality? Future historical and pedo-anthracological studies should provide answers. Although archaeological Scots pine is a recalcitrant species in dendroarchaeology in the Southern Alps, probably due to the presence of many missing rings, in this study a Scots pine t. average data have been dated using a larch reference chronology for the first time. This dating is supported by archaeological observations.

Forest Exploitation and Wood Supply: A Dendroarchaeological Approach between the Massif Central and the Southern Alps since the Middle Ages

“…In each case, several rays per sample were measured and then averaged in order to obtain suitable dating series. Then, with different dendroarchaeological software (DENDRON IV, [31] and SYLPHE, [32]), tree-ring series were indexed using the "Corridor", a polynomial indexation which takes into account the amplitudes of the inter-annual variations while preserving the average frequency variations ( [31,33] in French; and presentation in English in [34]), or the "Except from Besançon", a seven-year moving average that does not take into account the largest and smallest rings, and the ring to be corrected in the calculation of the average [35].…”

“…Forests 2022, 13, x FOR PEER REVIEW 3 of 15 variations while preserving the average frequency variations ( [31,33] in French; and presentation in English in [34]), or the "Except from Besançon", a seven-year moving average that does not take into account the largest and smallest rings, and the ring to be corrected in the calculation of the average [35]. Once indexed, the curves were cross-dated using the Student test (t).…”

Dendroarchaeology in Europe

“…Sophisticated knowledge of mechanical properties and other characteristics of various tree species by historical craftsmen can be expected (Blau, 1917). The regional preference of a species is strongly affected by its natural distribution (Kolář et al, 2021;Shindo and Giraud, 2021;Sochová et al, 2021;Solomina and Matskovsky, 2021). For example, in the lowlands of western Europe oak was regularly used for all components of vernacular buildings due to the rare occurrence of conifers (Haneca et al, 2009;San-Miguel-Ayanz et al, 2016).…”