The Ergersheim Mittelwald, (coppice with standards) which has been managed as a Rechtler forest (community forest to supply the community and/or citizens with firewood) for several hundred years, offers excellent conditions for archaeological experiments and archaeotechnical tests on the wood of trees. Due to 30-year rotations, in which individual forest areas are cleared of undergrowth and certain trees are chopped out - put on the stump - it can be compared very well with the economically used forest areas in the vicinity of prehistoric settlements. In the following years, the stumps form cane shoots from which young trees grow back. The effects on the growth of the trees caused by the rotation are dendrologically very similar in historical and recent wood samples. This leads to the fact that the Ergersheim oaks grow particularly tough wood. On average, larger trees are felled at the age of 60, 90 or 120 years.
References
Renate Bärnthol: Nieder- und Mittelwald in Franken: Waldwirtschaftsformen aus dem Mittelalter. (Schriften und Kataloge des Fränkischen Freilandmuseums). Fränkisches Freilandmuseum, Bad Windsheim 2003, ISBN 978-3-926834-54-6 (German)