Charcoal, fragile and small, if buried in archaeological sediments is preserved for millennia. Using an incident light microscope, it is possible to study the wood anatomy, “fossilized” in the  charcoal, and to identify the plant of origin. With 3112 charcoal from the site of Vetricella we have traced the foresthistory in southern Tyrrhenian Tuscany, between the Early and Late Middle Ages: the forest type, the productive uses (compound coppice and pasture) and the occurred changes. Mauro Buonincontri, Post Doc Research Fellow in the nEU-Med project, shows how present forms and traditions of the agricultural and silvo-pastoral landscape in the area of Scarlino descend from land uses started more than thousand years ago.