WoodNDame - Reconstructing the climate and medieval woodland management strategies from the charred woods of Notre-Dame de Paris: contribution of dendrochronology, wood anatomy and carbon isotope data

Project Information

WoodNDame

Grant agreement ID: 101111028

DOI

10.3030/101111028

Project closed

EC signature date 19 July 2023

Start date 2 October 2023

End date 1 November 2025

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 211 754,88

Coordinated by

MUSEUM NATIONAL D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WoodNDame (WoodNDame - Reconstructing the climate and medieval woodland management strategies from the charred woods of Notre-Dame de Paris: contribution of dendrochronology, wood anatomy and carbon isotope data)

Reporting period: 2023-10-02 to 2025-11-01

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral, while a tragic cultural loss, created a unique research opportunity to investigate past environmental conditions and medieval forest management practices in the Paris Basin by studying its oak roof beams. Partly dated between the 11th and 13th centuries, these timbers provide a unique window into the “so-called” Medieval Climate Anomaly (ca. 950-1250 CE), a period characterised by warm and dry summers that may have influenced tree growth and forestry practices. Moreover, the specific dimensions and characteristics of certain beams in the roof structure, corresponding to trees ca. 20–25 m in height and small diameters (30–50 cm), suggest selective timber sourcing tailored to specific construction requirements. To explore these aspects, the project employs a multiproxy approach integrating ring-width analysis, vessel anatomy, and carbon isotope data. The main objective of the WoodNDame project is to provide a high-resolution, multi-parameter framework for interpreting how paleoenvironmental conditions and human activities shaped the “forest” of Notre-Dame de Paris. Before interpreting the signals preserved in these timbers, it is crucial to assess the impact of carbonisation on each parameter. Comparative analyses of charred and uncharred samples, using both modern and archaeological oak, are essential to evaluate preservation levels and potential biases introduced by charring, alongside with establishing a modern tree-ring reference using 12 wood stands in the Paris Basin to disentangle climate-driven growth signals from those resulting from woodland management practices. The results are expected to inform both historical ecology and palaeoclimatology, providing a significant contribution to knowledge of human–environment interactions and offering insights relevant for modern forest management in a changing climate.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project conducted a comprehensive comparative analysis of modern carbonised oak and partially charred beams from Notre-Dame de Paris (NDP), demonstrating that carbon isotopic (δ¹³C ) variability and tree-ring anatomical metrics are largely preserved at carbonisation intensities comparable to those of the NDP fire. This work established a validated methodological framework for interpreting charred wood in historical and archaeological contexts.
Development and analysis of multiple tree-ring chronologies. A modern reference framework was developed using multiple oak tree-ring chronologies from the Paris Basin for both Quercus robur and Quercus petraea, integrating tree-ring width (TRW), quantitative wood anatomy (QWA), and δ¹³C to disentangle climatic and anthropogenic signals. Climate–growth sensitivity analyses identified key anatomical parameters and clarified seasonal responses: earlywood vessels responded primarily to spring temperatures, TRW reflected early-summer precipitation, and δ¹³C recorded summer drought conditions. An inventory of growth responses to extreme climatic events was also produced. The project successfully distinguished climate and woodland management fingerprints, separating natural variability from anthropogenic interventions such as coppice-with-standards.
Application of the multiproxy framework to the NDP timbers resulted in the development of continuous TRW, QWA, and δ¹³C chronologies spanning 1023–1239 CE. Subsequent analyses identified synchronous growth-release events and pointer years, allowing the detection of both climatic signals and woodland-management fingerprints. Collectively, these efforts produced high-resolution, curated datasets and highlight the value of multiproxy approaches for providing a comprehensive understanding of how environmental conditions and human activity shaped the “forest” of Notre-Dame.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project showed that δ¹³C variability and tree-ring anatomical metrics are largely preserved in charred oak, providing a valuable advance for dendrochronology and dendro-anthracology studies.
The integration of tree-ring width, quantitative wood anatomy and carbon isotope data across both modern reference material and medieval timbers establishes a high-resolution, multiproxy framework, which has rarely been achieved at this temporal resolution. The establishment of continuous TRW, QWA, and δ¹³C chronologies spanning over two centuries (1023–1239 CE) from the NDP roof timbers represents a unique dataset for the High Middle Ages, a period for which proxy records are extremely scarce.