What is it about?
The paper investigates how wood was exploited for timber in Europe north of the Alps between 300 BCE and 700 CE. The authors analysed over 20,000 archaeologically recovered wood samples — each absolutely dated with dendrochronological (tree-ring) methods — to trace how forest exploitation changed before, during and after the period of Roman occupation. Throughout Antiquity, the forests north of the Alps were intensively used and transformed by humans. However, the data display changes in woodland exploitation: The expansion of the Roman Empire to the area is associated with the exploitation of formerly unused woodlands, and by the 3rd century CE, led to a lack of old forest stands and local overexploitation. It was not until late antiquity that reforestation took place.
Featured Image
Photo by Joyce G on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The study provides the first large-scale, high-resolution view of long-term changes in woodland use during a key period of European history. It demonstrates that the expansion of the Roman Empire was not only a cultural and political phenomenon — it deeply reshaped European natural landscapes by driving logging and deforestation. The findings help us understand how human economic activity and infrastructure influenced forest ecology and landscape transformation over centuries. The collected data is an important addition to interdisciplinary research on Antiquity. By covering 1,000 years of forest history, the study offers a long-term view on human environmental impact and shows how economic demands, infrastructure, and politics can reshape ecosystems — insights relevant for today’s forest management and sustainability debates.
Perspectives
The study opens new paths for environmental history, archaeology, and forest ecology as it improves our understanding of the ecological and socioeconomic consequences of Roman expansion and provides new insights into the long-term interaction between human activity and forest dynamics. Furthermore, it highlights the value of large dendrochronological datasets to study past forest dynamics and woodland resource use over long periods. Finally, it invites further research: for example, more detailed regional studies to see variation across Europe; comparisons with climate or demographic data to understand how human pressure and natural factors interacted; and deeper exploration of how forest recovery (regrowth) or long-term ecological consequences played out after periods of intense exploitation.
Bernhard Muigg
Chair of Forest History, Institute of Forest Sciences, University of Freiburg
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Woodlands of Antiquity: A millennium of dendrochronological data on forest exploitation and timber economy between the Alps and the Atlantic, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2516240122.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
