Een 18de-eeuwse wraksite op de Buiten Ratel-zandbank (Belgische territoriale wateren): 1. Multidisciplinair onderzoek van het vondstenmateriaal

In 1996 werd op de Buiten Ratel-zandbank, op 9 mijl van de kust, ter hoogte van Koksijde, een houten scheepswrak gelokaliseerd. Het werd onderzocht door een groep sportduikers, met de naam NATA. Jarenlange verkenning van de wraksite leverde talrijke vondsten op. In 2003 zochten de duikers steun bij het toenmalige IAP (Instituut voor het Archeologisch Patrimonium), nu Vlaams Instituut voor het Onroerend Erfgoed (VIOE), om het onderzoek en de conservatie op wetenschappelijke basis verder te zetten. Het VIOE ontfermde zich over het onderzoek van de tot nu toe geborgen materiële resten van de wraksite. Het eerste hoofdstuk van het artikel geeft een overzicht van de observaties van de wraksite via duikonderzoek en via gespecialiseerde technieken vanop een onderzoeksschip. In hoofdstuk 2 worden de objecten beschreven, hun betekenis aan boord van het schip besproken, evenals hun datering en herkomst. Hoofdstuk 3 brengt alle informatie samen en geeft aan wat er in de toekomst nog aan onderzoek kan gebeuren

Regional Patterns of Late Medieval and Early Modern European Building Activity Revealed by Felling Dates

Although variations in building activity are a useful indicator of societal well-being and demographic development, historical datasets for larger regions and longer periods are still rare. Here, we present 54,045 annually precise dendrochronological felling dates from historical construction timber from across most of Europe between 1250 and 1699 CE to infer variations in building activity. We use geostatistical techniques to compare spatiotemporal dynamics in past European building activity against independent demographic, economic, social and climatic data. We show that the felling dates capture major geographical patterns of demographic trends, especially in regions with dense data coverage. A particularly strong negative association is found between grain prices and the number of felling dates. In addition, a significant positive association is found between the number of felling dates and mining activity. These strong associations, with well-known macro-economic indicators from pre-industrial Europe, corroborate the use of felling dates as an independent source for exploring large-scale fluctuations of societal well-being and demographic development. Three prominent examples are the building boom in the Hanseatic League region of northeastern Germany during the 13th century, the onset of the Late Medieval Crisis in much of Europec. 1300, and the cessation of building activity in large parts of central Europe during armed conflicts such as the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648 CE). Despite new insights gained from our European-wide felling date inventory, further studies are needed to investigate changes in construction activity of high versus low status buildings, and of urban versus rural buildings, and to compare those results with a variety of historical documentary sources and natural proxy archives.</jats:p

Digital Collaboratory on Cultural-Historical Dendrochronology in the Low Countries

Deze bestanden bevatten jaarringreeksen (120 reeksen) en meta-data van archeologisch eikenhout, afkomstig van de middeleeuwse site ‘Verdronken weide’ te Ieper. De veldata situeren zich vanaf de tweede helft van de 13de eeuw. ). Deze data worden opgenomen in de DCCB in 2010. Zie 'relations' voor de website van het DCCD, het interactief digitaal archief van jaarringgegevens.These files contain dendrochronological data (120 ring-width series) and metadata from archaeological oak wood samples, taken during the archaeological excavations at the ‘Verdronken weide’ at Ypres. Felling dates cluster in the second half of the 13th century. These data will be part of the DCCD in 2010. See 'relations' for the DCCD website, the interactive digital archive of tree-ring data

Digital Collaboratory on Cultural-Historical Dendrochronology in the Low Countries

Deze bestanden bevatten jaarringreeksen en meta-data van kunsthistorische objecten. Meer bepaald gaat het over dendrochronologische meetreeksen van 140 Brabantse retabelsculpturen uit 15de-16de eeuw. De retabelsculpturen werden hoofdzakelijk geproduceerd in de middeleeuwse steden Antwerpen, Brussel en Mechelen, en gesneden uit geïmporteerd Baltisch eikenhout. De onderzochte sculpturen maken deel uit van de collecties van de Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en geschiedenis (Brussel, België), het Museum Vleeshuis (Antwerpen, België) en het Museum Catharijneconvent (Utrecht, Nederland). Deze data worden opgenomen in de DCCD in 2010. Zie 'relations' voor de website van het DCCD, het interactief digitaal archief van jaarringgegevens.These files contain dendrochronological data and metadata from art-historical objects from 15th-16th century, gathered by Kristof Haneca during a FWO-funded research project (2001-2004). More specifically, tree-ring data from 140 Brabantine altarpieces, were recorded. The altarpieces were mainly created in the medieval towns of Antwerp, Brussels and Mechelen, and carved predominately from imported Baltic oak timbers. The investigated sculptures art part of the collections of the Royal Museums of Art and History (Brussels, Belgium), the Museum Vleeshuis (Antwerp, Belgium) and Museum Catharijnconvent (Utrecht, the Netherlands). These data will be part of the DCCD in 2010. See 'relations' for the DCCD website, the interactive digital archive of tree-ring data

Simulating Trial Trenches for Archaeological Prospection: Assessing the Variability in Intersection Rates

In this study we draw attention to the inherent variability in the results of trial trenching, when taking into account the countless variations in orientation and positioning of trenches. Grids of trial trenches were simulated time and again on the excavation plans of 16 archaeological sites from Flanders, Belgium. Orientation and positioning of the grid layout was shifted randomly, whilst the area coverage varied from 2.5% to 80%. The intersection rates of the archaeological features allow to gain more insight in trends and variability that are inherent to the chosen design of trial trenches. It is assessed how robust a chosen grid layout performs on (multi-period) archaeological sites and how variable these results might be. The most effective layout appears to be a grid with short, parallel and discontinuous trenches or a standard grid, closely followed by 2m wide continuous trenches. Implementing 4m wide trenches reduces the effectiveness of the latter method substantially. When the area coverage of the trenches is below 10%, the results of the archaeological prospection become unreliable and can potentially lead to a substantial over-or underestimation of the actual feature density on the site

Simulation von Suchschnitten in der archäologischen Prospektion: Berwertung der Variabilität im Anteil von geschnittenen Befunden

Simulating trial trenches for archaeological prospec- tion: assessing the variability in intersection rates. In this study we draw attention to the inherent variability in the results of trial trenching, when taking into account the countless variations in orientation and positioning of trenches. Grids of trial trenches were simulated time and again on the excavation plans of 16 archaeological sites from Flanders, Belgium. Orientation and positioning of the grid layout was shifted randomly, whilst the area cov- erage varied from 2,5 % to 80 %. The intersection rates of the archaeological features allow to gain more insight in trends and variability that are inherent to the chosen design of trial trenches. It is assessed how robust a cho- sen grid layout performs on (multi-period) archaeological sites and how variable these results might be. The most effective layout appears to be a grid with short, parallel and discontinuous trenches or a standard grid, closely followed by 2m wide continuous trenches. Implement- ing 4m wide trenches reduces the effectiveness of the lat- ter method substantially. When the area coverage of the trenches is below 10 %, the results of the archaeological prospection become unreliable and can potentially lead to a substantial over- or underestimation of the actual feature density on the site

Linking European building activity with plague history

Variations in building activity reflect demographic, economic and social change during history. Tens of thousands of wooden constructions in Europe have been dendrochronologically dated in recent decades. We use the annually precise evidence from a unique dataset of 49 640 tree felling dates of historical constructions to reconstruct temporal changes in building activity between 1250 and 1699 CE across a large part of western and central Europe largely corresponding to the former Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Comparison with annual records of 9772 plague outbreaks shows that construction activity was significantly negatively correlated to the number of plague outbreaks, with the greatest decrease in construction following the larger outbreaks by three to four years after the start of the epidemics. Preceding the Black Death (1346–1353 CE) by five decades and the Great Famine (1315–1322 CE) by two decades, a significant decline in construction activity at c. 1300 CE is indicative of a societal crisis, associated with population stagnation or decline. Another dramatic decline in building activity coincides with the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648 CE) and confirms the devastating nature of this conflict. While construction activity was significantly lower during periods of high grain prices, no statistically robust relationship between the number of felling dates and past temperature or hydroclimate variations is found. This study demonstrates the value of dendrochronological felling dates as an indicator for times of crisis and prosperity during periods when documentary evidence is limited

Method to estimate the medullar rays angle in pieces of wood based on tree-ring structure: application to planks of Quercus petraea

Producción CientíficaEstimating wood parameters employing non-destructive methods has been widely studied in recent years. The choice of wood used to build wine ageing barrels (cooperage) is strongly influenced by wood anatomy and specifically by the orientation of medullar rays among other aspects. In this article, a method based on the regularities of the tree-ring structure to estimate the medullar ray angle of the cross section of a piece of wood is proposed. This angle shows the direction of the best linear path to evaluate several tree-ring features and could be employed to automate tasks, such as introducing an analysis path or rotating the image prior to the analysis, which some dendro analysis methods require. A dataset of 26,992 synthetic images and 110 real oak wood images was used to validate the approach. The medullar ray angle of each image considered was measured manually and estimated using the method proposed here, which employs the fast Fourier transform (FFT) to take advantage of the tree-ring structure regularities and find the direction angle of the best linear path to evaluate several tree-ring features. The results obtained demonstrate a mean squared error of 0.29° and 8.19° and a mean absolute error of 0.19° and a 5.91° for the synthetic and oak wood images, respectively. These data suggest the suitability of the proposed method as part of an automated system to inspect and analyse the growth rings in oak wood planks