The colonial economy of Martinique, French West Indies, has long been based on sugar cane exploitation, which started in the 17th century and decreased during the 19th century. Sugar economy led to woodland exploitation for the production of fuel. In particular, this fuelwood was needed for lime production, which was used for the purification of cane juice. As lime kilns are numerous in Martinique, their functioning implied an intense wood exploitation. To date, no archaeobotanical studies were conducted to assess how lime kiln workers used and managed wood for the production of fuel. In this study, we analyzed 207 wood charcoals fragments from a 19th century lime kiln at the Sucrerie plantation, Les Anses-d’Arlet, Martinique. This led to the identification of 50 taxa, showing that wood collection was mainly diffuse and unfocused. But the occurrence of taxa known as being used for fuelwood or charcoal production suggests that lime kiln workers were looking for wood with good fuel properties. Our results also show that the collection of wood was made locally, as revealed by the presence of a xero- to mesophilic vegetation in the anthracological record, which is in accordance with botanical and ethnological data. The presence of pioneer and heliophilic taxa also suggest that the vegetation was already impacted by wood exploitation, i.e., local forest associations were largely disturbed by this time and secondary regrowth was conspicuous. Nevertheless, the high proportion of small-gauge wood charcoals fragments (36%) and the presence of edible taxa in the anthracological record suggest that saplings and pruning waste may have been preferred to preserve useful and mature trees. This study allows for the first time to assess which fuelwood was used by Antillean lime kiln workers during the colonial Period which makes it possible to better understand one of the most widespread handicrafts during the sugar exploitation in the Caribbean.

法国西印度群岛马提尼克岛的殖民地经济长期以来一直以甘蔗开采为基础，这种开采始于17世纪，而在19世纪则有所下降。制糖经济导致林地开采以生产燃料。特别地，这种薪柴是石灰生产所需要的，石灰被用于提纯甘蔗汁。马提尼克岛的石灰窑数量众多，它们的功能意味着对木材的大量开采。迄今为止，还没有进行过考古植物学研究来评估石灰窑工人如何使用和管理木材来生产燃料。在这项研究中，我们分析了马提尼克岛Sucrerie种植园Les Anses-d'Arlet的19世纪石灰窑中的207种木炭碎片。这导致鉴定出50个分类单元，表明木材收集主要是分散的和不集中的。但是，被称为用于薪柴或木炭生产的分类单元的出现表明，石灰窑工人正在寻找具有良好燃料特性的木材。我们的研究结果还表明，根据植物学和人种学数据，在人类学记录中存在一种干到中温的植被，这表明木材是本地收集的。先锋和亲缘生物分类单元的存在也表明植被已经受到木材开采的影响，这与植物学和民族学数据一致。先锋和亲缘生物分类单元的存在也表明植被已经受到木材开采的影响，这与植物学和民族学数据一致。先锋和亲缘生物分类单元的存在也表明植被已经受到木材开采的影响，即，当地的森林协会在这段时间受到了很大的干扰，并且次生是明显的。然而，在人类学记录中，小规格木炭碎片的比例很高（36％），并且存在可食用的分类单元，这表明树苗和修剪废料可能更适合保存有用和成熟的树木。这项研究首次评估了殖民时期安的列斯尼石灰窑工人使用了哪种薪柴，从而有可能更好地了解加勒比海制糖业中使用最广泛的手工艺品之一。