The Romans founded their Empire on a most efficient network of transport and the extensive exploitation of resources from the regions under their administration. Evidently, large quantities of timber also travelled along these roads, as wood was an essential everyday resource, required for anything from building to heating, and from shipbuilding to manufacturing. For construction purposes, silver fir (Abies alba) was undoubtedly the preferred tree species. Vitruvius himself, in his treatise on architecture (De Architectura), indicates the most valued characteristics of silver fir: its wood is light, the trees are large and have a regular stem. This was confirmed by finds in Pompeii and Herculaneum, where silver fir was certainly the widely-used tree species. Today it occurs naturally in mixed silver fir-beech (Fagus sylvatica) woodlands in the mountains surrounding Pompeii and it is widely believed that the species was even more diffuse in the past. It would, therefore, be a logical assumption that the large quantities of silver fir wood found in Pompeii are of local origin, if only because of lower transport costs. In this study, a total of 35 silver fir boards were submitted to dendrochronological analyses. The wooden samples were found in Moregine, south of Pompeii, during the construction of the first part of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway, and had been very well-preserved in a wet environment. 19 samples showed high reciprocal correlation values, and the mean tree ring series, which spans 240 years, has been dated to 49 CE. Dendrochronological analyses and a comparison with several reference chronologies raised doubts, gave certainties and presented hypotheses regarding the origin of silver fir in the Pompeii region. These results will be presented at the Conference with the aim to open a discussion.
Dendrochronological analyses of wooden remains from Moregine, Pompeii: what is the provenance of the silver fir timber?
Bernabei M;Bontadi J;
2019
Abstract
The Romans founded their Empire on a most efficient network of transport and the extensive exploitation of resources from the regions under their administration. Evidently, large quantities of timber also travelled along these roads, as wood was an essential everyday resource, required for anything from building to heating, and from shipbuilding to manufacturing. For construction purposes, silver fir (Abies alba) was undoubtedly the preferred tree species. Vitruvius himself, in his treatise on architecture (De Architectura), indicates the most valued characteristics of silver fir: its wood is light, the trees are large and have a regular stem. This was confirmed by finds in Pompeii and Herculaneum, where silver fir was certainly the widely-used tree species. Today it occurs naturally in mixed silver fir-beech (Fagus sylvatica) woodlands in the mountains surrounding Pompeii and it is widely believed that the species was even more diffuse in the past. It would, therefore, be a logical assumption that the large quantities of silver fir wood found in Pompeii are of local origin, if only because of lower transport costs. In this study, a total of 35 silver fir boards were submitted to dendrochronological analyses. The wooden samples were found in Moregine, south of Pompeii, during the construction of the first part of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway, and had been very well-preserved in a wet environment. 19 samples showed high reciprocal correlation values, and the mean tree ring series, which spans 240 years, has been dated to 49 CE. Dendrochronological analyses and a comparison with several reference chronologies raised doubts, gave certainties and presented hypotheses regarding the origin of silver fir in the Pompeii region. These results will be presented at the Conference with the aim to open a discussion.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
