Esther Jansma

The early-medieval Netherlands witnessed major changes in landscape, economy, demography and also possibly climate. Archaeological evidence throughout north-western Europe, including the Netherlands, indicates severe demographic decline and changing settlement patterns in the late-Roman and post- Roman periods. To what extent the inhabitants of the earlymedieval Lowlands adapted to the increasingly changing landndscapes and how this is reflected in large-scale patterns is generally unknown. Historical route networks provide a key to - understanding large-scale settlement patterns as well as demography and land use.

Dendrochronology is concerned with the study of annual growth patterns in wood. Dendrochronological data can improve our knowledge on past climates, landscape development, socio-economic relations and settlement dynamics. Currently within the “Wood Use in the Early Middle Ages” (WUEM) project dendrochronology is used to refine our knowledge about the chronology and trade activities of the Early Medieval trade centre of Dorestad (NL) and improve our understanding of the Early Medieval Low Countries. Dorestad has been the subject of continuous research for over thirty years, which makes it one of best documented and largest excavations in the Netherlands. Many find categories from Dorestad (e.g. glass, pottery, metal) have been studied in detail and extensively published. Although wood is an extremely important source of information about site chronology and economic activity, wood research of Dorestad was limited. A main reason being that at the time of the early excavations dendroch...