Pretreatment of Rice Straw by Newly Isolated Fungal Consortium Enhanced Lignocellulose Degradation and Humification during Composting.

Provenancing wood used in the Norse Greenlandic settlements: A biogeochemical study using hydrogen, oxygen, and strontium isotopes

Life beyond life: Repair, reuse, and recycle—the many lives of wooden objects and the mutability of trees

Wood procurement in Norse Greenland (11th to 15th c. AD)

A recent study dating Viking presence in America to a precise year was only possible thanks to long-term conservation of archaeological finds. It also arose from curiosity, interdisciplinarity and recognition of emerging techniques. These factors highlight the importance of archiving materials and asking the right questions in research on the entanglements of climate and history. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00415-8.pdf

In praise of archives (and an open mind)

Trees and timber are of great importance in many cultures across the globe, whether used as a construction material, as a fuel source, or for making tools and items of everyday life. This was also ...

Norse Management of Wooden Resources across the North Atlantic: Highlights from the Norse Greenlandic Settlements


The North Atlantic islands of the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland have always been relatively poor in terms of native timber resources, due to their cold climate and exposed topography. Nevertheless, timber was vital to the material culture of the Norse settlers of these islands, and driftwood often met this need. As in subarctic Norway, where trees are also scarce, driftwood use and ownership were prescribed in medieval law codes. Historical documentary evidence shows that wealthy landowners bought driftwood rights as valuable assets, and ethnohistorical sources reveal a wide range of local and regional customs related to driftwood exploitation. However, driftwood was an unstable resource, and its delivery depended on a range of unpredictable factors related to climate and ocean currents. There is also ongoing debate regarding the relative importance of imported timber, which is for example often referenced in the Icelandic sagas. The use of driftwood is difficult to demonstrate through macroscopic, microscopic, or (geo-)chemical analysis. Similarities in the microscopic anatomy of boreal wood taxa preclude definitive provenancing through taxonomic analysis, and material traces of immersion in seawater are often either impermanent or ambiguous, especially in archaeological wood remains. This paper presents a comprehensive review of current historical and archaeological research on the exploitation of driftwood timber in the Medieval North Atlantic and explores potential future directions in this field. Furthermore, it asserts that this line of research should be pursued with some urgency, as anthropogenic climate change threatens both driftwood delivery and the preservation of archaeological wood remains.

/pdf/timber-as-a-marine-resource-exploitation-of-arctic-driftwood-22ip5mhs.pdf

Elie Pinta

Papers

Norse Management of Wooden Resources across the North Atlantic: Highlights from the Norse Greenlandic Settlements

Provenancing wood used in the Norse Greenlandic settlements: A biogeochemical study using hydrogen, oxygen, and strontium isotopes

Timber as a Marine Resource: Exploitation of Arctic Driftwood in the North Atlantic