Dendrochronological Studies of an Alpine Village (Courbons, Digne-les-Bains, France)

Abstract

Abstract A dendrochronological study of Courbons, a village in the southern French pre-Alps, was conducted to improve our understanding of its history, strengthen the reference chronologies, and reconstruct the outlines of historical forests. A total of 20 buildings were subjected to dendrochronological sampling. The 145 sampled wood pieces were of nine different species, 44 of which are dated from larch, fir, and deciduous oak. Two main construction phases were identified (from the 13th–16th century CE and from the 18th–20th century CE), separated by a hiatus during the 17th century CE. A scarcity of resources could be the cause of the hiatus. We noticed that oak trees were only used before the 16th century CE and that trees felled after the 17th century CE grew better than those that were felled before this period. Based on historical published data, we assumed that demographic variations, trees reserved for shipbuilding, and pressures from pastoralism could explain the dendrochronological results.