Le cèdre blanc (Thuja occidentalis)dans le paysage culturel en amont de Montréal au XIXe siècle. Une approche dendroarchéologique
This master’s thesis is about the colonization context and forestry exploitation of eastern white cedar (Thuya occidentalis) in the Montreal hinterland of the 19th century. On the one hand, it aims to document the local exploitation strategies of eastern white cedar and the evolution of the domestic cultural landscape of colonial landholdings since their initial concession. On the other hand, this thesis seeks to identify the exchange networks of the cedar timber that was shipped to Montreal for the construction of the city’s buildings and port facilities. With the near absence of historical documentation on the subject, only the application of the dendrochronology and the dendroprovenancing allows us to attain our objectives. We present a detailed analysis of six rural sites in the Ottawa and the Upper Saint Lawrence Valleys. Dendrochronology analysis of these areas enables us to tackle colonial establishment in an original way. The second part of this thesis is dedicated to the dendroprovenancing analysis of seven Montreal sites, all studied beforehand by Poudret-Barré (2007) and the Groupe de recherches en dendrochronologie historique (GRDH). To do so, the previously designated sites will serve as a geographic anchor point to help us determine the origin of the pieces of eastern white cedar found in Montreal. Our study of eastern white cedar along with the results of the dendrochronology and dendroprovenancing analysis allows us to tackle the architectural and archeological heritage from a new angle. Completing the available history data, it also opens the way to new research of the same kind.
dendrochronologie thuya occidental dendroarchaeology dendrochronology dendroprovenancing 19th century eastern white cedar log buildings