The rising demand for charcoal from industrialization during the eighteenth century led to the establishment of a large number of charcoal production sites (CPSs) within the woodland ecosystems of Europe. The CPSs still present today can be investigated to assess the past woodland composition in terms of taxa present and timber size, at a high spatial resolution. The present study was done in the northern Vosges region in France, an area of low mountains covered by woods with some important past industrial sites in several of its valleys. We aimed to investigate the possible role of topographical variables such as altitude and aspect in the distribution of CPSs and in the past distribution of tree taxa. Charcoal production sites were found, identified and sampled in four valley catchment areas, and a numerical model of elevation was used to compute the topography of the landscape. A total of 233 sites were recorded and anthracological (charcoal) samples from 121 of these were analysed. The radiocarbon dates of 20 CPSs range between the late 17th and the early twentieth century AD, which corresponds to the peak of industrial activity in this region. The spatial distribution of CPSs appears to increase in density close to streams, and 14 tree taxa were identified in the charcoal records, with Fagus and Quercus being dominant by far. Our results revealed the strong influence of the direction in which the slope faced on the taxon composition of the anthracological spectra. These results suggest that the local woodland stands which were used to supply the charcoal kilns depended on the local environmental conditions. Furthermore, the composition of the woodland has changed significantly over time, with more Pinus sylvestris at present.

18世纪工业化对木炭的需求不断增长，导致在欧洲林地生态系统内建立了大量木炭生产基地（CPS）。可以对今天仍然存在的CPS进行调查，以高分辨率的分类单元和木材大小评估过去的林地组成。本研究是在法国北部的孚日地区进行的，该地区是森林覆盖的低矮山区，在其多个山谷中都有一些重要的过去工业用地。我们旨在调查地形变量（例如海拔和纵横比）在CPS的分布以及过去树木分类单元中的可能作用。在四个山谷集水区发现，鉴定并取样了木炭生产地点，然后使用高程数值模型来计算景观的地形。总共记录了233个位置，并分析了其中121个的人类学（木炭）样本。20 CPSs的放射性碳年代介于公元17世纪末和20世纪初之间，这对应于该地区工业活动的高峰。CPS的空间分布似乎在靠近溪流的地方密度增加，并且在木炭记录中确定了14个树类群，其中Fagus和Quercus到目前为止占主导地位。我们的结果表明，坡度所面对的方向对人类学谱的分类单元组成有很大影响。这些结果表明，用于供应木炭窑的当地林地林分取决于当地环境条件。此外，林地的组成随着时间的推移已发生了显着变化，目前有更多的樟子松。