Dendrochronological evidence for long-distance timber trading in the Roman Empire

English version

Autoři: Mauro Bernabei ^aff001; Jarno Bontadi ^aff001; Rossella Rea ^aff002; Ulf Büntgen ^aff003; Willy Tegel ^aff007
Působiště autorů: CNR-IBE, Institute for BioEconomy, National Research Council, S. Michele all’Adige, TN, Italy ^aff001; Soprintendenza Speciale Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio di Roma, Italy ^aff002; Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom ^aff003; Swiss Federal Research Institute (WSL), Switzerland ^aff004; Global Change Research Centre (CzechGlobe), Czech Republic ^aff005; Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Czech Republic ^aff006; Institute of Forest Sciences, Chair of Forest Growth, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany ^aff007; Amt für Archäologie, Kanton Thurgau, Frauenfeld, Switzerland ^aff008
Vyšlo v časopise: PLoS ONE 14(12)
Kategorie: Research Article
prolekare.web.journal.doi_sk: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224077

Souhrn

An important question for our understanding of Roman history is how the Empire’s economy was structured, and how long-distance trading within and between its provinces was organised and achieved. Moreover, it is still unclear whether large construction timbers, for use in Italy, came from the widespread temperate forests north of the Alps and were then transported to the sparsely-wooded Mediterranean region in the south. Here, we present dendrochronological results from the archaeological excavation of an expensively decorated portico in the centre of Rome. The oak trees (Quercus sp.), providing twenty-four well-preserved planks in waterlogged ground, had been felled between 40 and 60 CE in the Jura Mountains of north-eastern France. It is most likely that the wood was transported to the Eternal City on the Saône and Rhône rivers and then across the Mediterranean Sea. This rare dendrochronological evidence from the capital of the Roman Empire gives fresh impetus to the ongoing debate on the likelihood of transporting timber over long distances within and between Roman provinces. This study reconstructs the administrative and logistic efforts required to transport high-quality construction timber from central Europe to Rome. It also highlights an advanced network of trade, and emphasises the enormous value of oak wood in Roman times.

Klíčová slova:

Trees – Archaeology – Archaeological excavation – Rivers – Wood – Timber – Oaks – Dendrochronology

Zdroje

1. Diosono F. Il legno produzione e commercio. Collana: Arti e mestieri nel mondo Romano antico. Ed Quasar, Roma. 2008.

2. Janssen E, Poblome J, Claeys J, Kint V, Degryse P, Marinova E, Muys B. Fuel for debating ancient economies. Calculating wood consumption at urban scale in Roman Imperial times. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports. 2017;11: 592–599.

3. Paci M. L' uomo e la foresta. Ed. Booklet, Milano. 2002.

4. Di Pasquale G, Buonincontri MP, Allevato E, Saracino A. Human-derived landscape changes on the northern Etruria coast (western Italy) between Roman times and the late Middle Ages. The Holocene. 2014; 24(11): 1491–1502.

5. Meiggs R. Trees and timber in the ancient Mediterranean world. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1982.

6. Shackley M. Managing the Cedars of Lebanon: Botanical Gardens or Living Forests? Current Issues in Tourism. 2004; 7 (4–5): 417–425.

7. Mols S. Ancient Roman household furniture and its use: from Herculaneum to the Rhine. An Murcia. 2008; 23–24: 145–160.

8. Moser D, Nelle O, Di Pasquale G. The Romans, the wood and the forest: state of the art and new data from the Vesuvius area (Naples, Italy). SAGVNTVM Extra, Vol 11 (2011): 5th International Meeting of Charcoal Analysis: Charcoal as Cultural and Biological Heritage. 2011; 113–114.

9. Veal R. The politics and economics of ancient forests: timber and fuel as levers of Greco-Roman control. In: Économie et inégalité: ressources échanges et pouvoir dans l’antiquité classique, ed. Derron P. (Vandoeuvres 2017), 2017; 317–357.

10. Büntgen U. Re-thinking the boundaries of dendrochronology. Dendrochronologia. 2019; 53: 1–4

11. Baillie MGL. Tree-Ring Dating and Archaeology. The University of Chicago Press Ltd, London; 1982.

12. Büntgen U, Wacker L, Galván JD, Arnold S, Arseneault D, Baillie D, et al. Tree rings reveal globally coherent signature of cosmogenic radiocarbon events in 774 and 993 CE. Nature Communications. 2018; 9: 3605. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-06036-0 30190505

13. Bridge M. Locating the origins of wood resources: a review of dendroprovenancing. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2012; 39 (8): 2828–2834.

14. Bernabei M, Bontadi J. Dendrochronological analysis of the timber structure of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Journal of Cultural Heritage. 2012; 13 (4): e54–e60.

15. Kuniholm PI. Dendrochronological investigations at Herculaneum and Pompeii. In “The Natural History of Pompeii”, edited by Jashemski W. F. and Meyer F. G.; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 2002. pp. 235–239.

16. ČCufar K, Tegel W, Merela M, Kromer B, Veluscek A. Eneolithic pile dwellings south of the Alps precisely dated with tree-ring chronologies from the north. Dendrochronologia. 2015; 35: 91–98.

17. Tegel W, Elburg R, Hakelberg D, Stäuble H, Büntgen U. (2012) Early Neolithic Water Wells Reveal the World's Oldest Wood Architecture. PLoS ONE. 2012 7(12): e51374. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051374 23284685

18. Tegel W, Muigg B, Büntgen U. The Wood of Merovingian Weaponry. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2016; 65: 148–153.

19. Guibal F. First dendrochronological dating of a shipwreck in the western Mediterranean area. Dendrochronologia. 1992; 10: 147–156.

20. Guibal F, Pomey P. Dendrochronologie et construction navale antique. Revue d’Archéométrie. 2004; 28: 35–42.

21. Thiebaux A. The GalloRoman boats found in Pommeroeul: a reassessment of their dendrochronological dating. Revue du Nord. 2011; 93(393): 227–232.

22. Čufar K., Merela M., Erič M., A Roman barge in the Ljubljanica river (Slovenia): wood identification, dendrochronological dating and wood preservation research. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2014; 44, 128–135.

23. Čufar K., Horvat J., Tolar T., Berden T., Merela M1. Research potential of wood of barrel from Roman water wells. Les/Wood. 2019; 68 (1), 47–60.

24. van Lanen RJ, Jansma E, van Doesburg J, Groenewoudt BJ. Roman and early-medieval long-distance transport routes in northwestern Europe: Modelling frequent-travel zones using a dendroarchaeological approach. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2016; 73: 120–137.

25. Domínguez-Delmás M, Driessen M, García-González I, van Helmond N, Visser R, Jansma E. Long-distance oak supply in mid-2nd century AD revealed: the case of a Roman harbour (Voorburg-Arentsburg) in the Netherlands. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2014; 41: 642–654.

26. Paolillo FR, Saviane N. Relazione tecnica dello scavo. Land s.r.l., Bodies of the Special Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Rome. 2017.

27. Rinn F. TSAPWin. Time series analysis and presentation for dendrochronology and related applications. User Reference Version 0.53. Rinntech, Heidelberg. 2005.

28. Knibbe B. PAST 4. Personal Analysis System for Tree-ring Research. Version 4.3. Instruction Manual. Wien, pp. 159. 2011.

29. Baillie MGL, Pilcher JR. A simple cross-dating program for tree-ring research. Tree-Ring Bull, 1973; 33: 7–14.

30. Hollstein E. Mitteleuropäische Eichenchronologie. Trierer dendrochronologische Forschungen zur Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte. Trierer Grabungen u. Forsch. 11 (Mainz 1980). 1980.

31. Eckstein D, Bauch J. Beitrag zur Rationalisierung eines dendrochronologischenVerfahrens und zur Analyse seiner Aussagesicherheit. Forstwiss, Centralblatt. 1969; 88: 230–250.

32. Cambini A. Riconoscimento microscopico del legno delle querce italiane. CNR Ed., Roma. 1967.

33. Becker B. Fällungsdaten Römischer Bauhölzer anhand einer 2350-jährigen Süddeutschen Eichen-Jahrringchronologie. Fundberichte aus Baden Württemberg, 1981; 6: 369–386.

34. Charlier F. Moissey–Tuilerie antique, ADLFI. Archéologie de la France—Informations [En ligne], Franche-Comté, mis en ligne le 01 mars 2001, consulté le 27 février 2017. Available from: http://adlfi.revues.org/8456.

35. Tegel W, Vanmoerkerke J, Hakelberg D, Büntgen U. Des cernes de bois à l'histoire de la conjoncture de la construction et à l'évolution de la pluviométrie en Gaule du Nord entre 500 BC et 500 AD. In: G. Blancquaert/F. Malrain (Hrsg.), Évolution des sociétés gauloises du Second âge du Fer, entre mutations internes et influences externes. Actes du 38e colloque de l’AFEAF. Revue Archéologique de Picardie n° spécial 30, Amiens. 2016: 639–653.

36. Lambert G, Lavier C. A new historical master chronology for dendrochronology of the oak in the East of France. Questions about the dating in a large geographical area. Dendrochronologia. 1991; 9: 165–180.

37. Momigliano A. Manuale di storia romana. Ed. UTET Università, Torino. 2016.

38. Rea R. Gli animali per la venatio: cattura, trasporto, custodia. In: Sangue e Arena. Edited by La Regina A. Roma. 2001. pp. 245–275.

39. Geraci G, Marcone M, Storia romana, Le Monnier, Firenze. Pp. 215. 2004.

40. Bekker-Nielsen T. Rivers and development in Roman Gaul, In: Bergier JF (ed.) Berge, Flüsse, Wälder in der Geschichte, 1989; 111–122.

41. Wazny T. Is there a Separate Tree-ring Pattern for Mediterranean oak? In: Tree-Rings, Kings, and Old World Archaeology and Environment. Papers Presented in Honor of Peter Ian Kuniholm. Edited by Sturt W. Manning and Mary Jaye Bruce. Oxbow Books, Oxford. 2009.

42. Guyon M, Rieth E. The Gallo Roman wrecks from Lyon Parc Saint Georges (France): new archaeological data on ancient inland «bottom based» shipbuilding. In: Bockius R (ed) Between the seas/transfer and exchange in nautical technology: proceedings of the 11th international symposium on boat and ship archaeology, Mainz 2006. Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuse um Mainz; 2009. pp. 157 165.

Dendrochronological evidence for long-distance timber trading in the Roman Empire

Souhrn

Klíčová slova:

Zdroje

PLOS One

Aktuální možnosti diagnostiky a léčby litiáz