Hi Collin,

I've also been intrigued by this question for a long time. There was a speaker at a Guild conference many years ago who had done extensive research on the subject. I don't remember her name or affiliation, I think she was a scholar of sorts. She showed slides of the roof system in a building she dated to AD 500-something, on the Sinai Peninsula as I recall, and associated with a monastery, with masonry walls. It appeared to be a well-engineered truss, not at all basic or experimental looking. I wonder if Joel, Will, or another long-timer could back that up?

I've also seen in print the claim that remains of buildings preserved in peat-bogs in England or Ireland dating to about 4000 BC contain mortice and tenon joints. Sorry I can't give you the source [not because I'd have to kill you then, but I don't remember].

As I walked through a gallery in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia years ago, dazed by the enormous variety of Old Master artwork, suddenly a painting jumped off the wall at me. It showed Jesus and Joseph, his father, busily working on a large timber on horses. I think it dated to the 1400's. Sorta ran a chill up my spine.

Leon

Thank you Leon, wonderful information. There is so much to learn about this craft on a world scale.
-Collin

Leon, I believe the presenter was Dr. Lynn Courtenay of the Univ. of Wis. My memory agrees basically with you except the dating I think is earlier to the 4th cent late Roman Empire or very early Eastern Roman Empire. The truss system was said to be the oldest known truss in continuous use. It was a variant on the king post truss in which the king post did not tie to the bottom chord. A Victorian busy body decided that the truss would not ultimately work so he added iron strapping to connect the king post to the tie chord. Perhaps Dr. Courtenay has published an account on the roof system.

Hi Roger & Leon,

I was in the Sheldonean Theatre roof in Oxford university yesterday and it is equipped with 70 foot wide clear span trusses equipped with king (centrally mounted) and queen (outboard mounted) posts. This building was the first significant commission undertaken by Christopher Wren at the age of 31, being built over the period 1664 - 7 and comes with iron strapping connecting the posts to tie beams as standard. I suppose that this is just a little bit pre victorian. Good reference is made to other cathedral type trusses employing metalwork in Cecil Hewett's English Historic Carpentry.

Re much earlier timber buildings the (alder) posts or more correctly piles of crannog type buildings are still able to be seen below water level and above loch (lake) bottom and this type of building is probably of the age 2000 to 4000 years old. These are present in Scotland and Ireland which is not really a surprise since the Scots originally came from Ireland.

Taking a liesurely stroll across from the Sheldonean Theatre to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford it is possible to view examples of Egyptian coffins which have been constructed using mortice and tenon joints together with examples of Egyptian hand held saws.

I guess that there really is nothing much new under the sun.

Regards

Ken Hume

Collin, From our travels in recent years to Italy & Sicily we observed many ornate timberframe roof trusses in churches converted from former Greek temples circa 1-99 AD. The age of the trussses seemed to average 400-700 years according to local "authorities" when asked. Hadrian was probably the most prolific Roman builder and many of his remaining structures have tf roof systems of unknown age. Have not tried (yet) to validate their input.
You may find a world of stuff by doing a search via Google.
Have fun