ANR CASIMODO

The oak frame of Notre-Dame de Paris (NDP) is one of the greatest masterpieces of Gothic carpentry in France. It was built during the Middle Ages, between the 11th and 13th centuries, at a time when profound environmental and societal changes – climatic optimum, strong demographic and economic growth – created significant pressure on available forest resources, one of the main economic engines of medieval societies. The destruction of the NPD framework in the fire of April 15, 2019 left thousands of fragments of charred oak beams. Analyzing this “forest” means going back in time, reconstructing the forests of past centuries and restoring this heritage for the public. The CASIMODO project aims to understand the impact of climatic and anthropogenic factors on the evolution of the forest-wood socio-ecosystem between the 11th and 13th centuries in Île-de-France and the Paris Basin: forest, raw material management wood and finished manufactured products. The project proposes three lines of research to address society’s adaptive response to the availability of wood resources during this period. The first objective is to define the climatic and socio-economic context of Paris. In order to identify potential technical adaptations of medieval society, the second objective is to study the wooden frame from an archaeological point of view in order to characterize the construction techniques and the methods of supplying the site. The third objective consists of characterizing the forest stands exploited in the 11th and 13th centuries, their management and the possible silvicultural systems put in place for adequate wood production. The overall objective of CASIMODO is to provide a better understanding of the evolution of an economic zone subject to climatic, societal and demographic pressures, through the life cycle of wood.

We propose to develop an integrated approach by combining history, archaeology, and bioarchaeology. Trees record variations in their environment, with each annual growth ring containing a means of dating and a set of anatomical and chemical markers providing information on the structure of the forest, the geographical origin of the wood and the past climate. This information will be compared to contemporary data on wood from medieval civil and religious structures in northern France, southern Belgium and western Germany. Textual archives and paleoenvironmental/bioarchaeological data from medieval archaeological sites in Île-de-France and the Paris basin will also be integrated.
Echoing the context of current ecological threat, this project addresses the recurring problems of relations between man and nature, and is part of the theme of societies facing environmental changes. Better documentation of the temporal and spatial variability of past global climates is needed to better anticipate the possible impacts of future climate change. CASIMODO can provide indirect clues about the extent of deforestation, and even natural disasters and related epidemics like the plague. Radiocarbon dating is still hampered by the imprecision of the dates obtained for certain periods. The establishment of a radiocarbon calibration curve from the woods of Notre-Dame will constitute a central tool of modern science (biology, ecology, geology, history, archeology.). Progress in this direction will therefore be a big step forward for a very large part of the scientific community.