Baltic shipping marks on nineteenth-century timber: their deciphering and a proposal for an innovative characterization of old timber

Intriguing marks have been recorded on numerous nineteenth-century timber structures throughout Europe. These inscriptions bear witness to an intensive trade that supplied Norwegian and Baltic timber - mainly softwood - to most Western European countries. Despite the abundance of archaeological records, the current understanding of these shipping marks is very limited. Consequently, historical surveys and restoration campaigns are not using their potential for a better understanding of historic timbers.
This paper aims at understanding the organisation of the nineteenth-century Baltic timber trade and at investigating the need for marking timber at different stages in this trade. Additionally, it focuses on the deciphering of the shipping marks, based on a survey of historic texts: treatises on forestry, merchants’ guides, trade journals, construction handbooks, etc.
The gathering of this historical knowledge provides the basis for an innovative decoding method, which is illustrated through the deciphering of some of the recently recorded marks. The results of these investigations show that the Baltic shipping marks provide valuable information about the dating, the origins and the qualities of historic timber, as well as the economic actors involved in its trade. This research paves the way to further on-site investigations and a strengthened international collaboration that could improve and regularise the decoding of these inscriptions.

Jaar van publicatie:2016

Trefwoorden:Construction History, Timber structures, shipping marks

CSS-citation score:1

Toegankelijkheid:Open