Sole Survivors: Using tree-trunk wells from archaeological excavations to inform reconstructions of medieval deforestation, and future reforestation.

This paper represents an attempt at a detailed analysis of woodland presence and dynamics
during the Middle Ages (AD 500-1500), as a contribution to the current debate on large-scale
reforestation in the Netherlands. Palynological data for this particular period are scarce and
allow only global reconstructions. To widen our search for historical woodland proxies, we
investigated the potential of archaeologically excavated tree-trunk wells. We carried out
a nation-wide inventory of this type of well, in which the shaft is formed by hollowed-out
tree trunks, typically large oak trees. Our suspicion that such trees indicate the local presence
of (old) woodland in the past was confirmed by a marked positive correlation with spatial
reconstructions based on other sources of information: archaeological (charcoal kilns) and
non-archaeological (place names and historical references). The observed correlations
suggest that mapping the distribution of precisely dated tree-trunk wells can indeed
contribute to achieving fairly detailed reconstructions of medieval woodland cover.