Ancient Roman Architectural Material—wood And Its Application

First image that pops into one’s mind when it comes to Roman architecture is concrete or brick architecture but not woodworking. Apparently wood is much more perishable material than concrete and brick, consequently it would be surprising to find any trace of wooden evidence from two thousand years ago. Luckily we learned that wood is not only a material for furniture and household items but for framing of the architecture, even the whole structure sometimes according to some ancient, modern literature and some of the vestiges. Wood is the most natural, accessible and workable architectural material at the time after all. It is also the predecessor and basis of concrete and brick architecture which was applied throughout the whole empire afterward. Some said that there is nothing that the Romans did not build, and the similarity of the ancient and modern woodworking is one of the many proof of it.Method of categorization and summarization have been used in this dissertation. Categories of most used wood and the tools of woodworking has been discussed, as well as the application of the wood on the architectural structure. It is necessary to mention the geological condition at the time to find out the trees that suitable for woodworking accordingly. Structure of the wooden architecture includes foundation,framing and wall,wooden floor,roof and ceiling. The wooden foundation chapter includes the process of the wooden foundation and the use of wood in concret foundation;framing and wall part includes the first kind of wooden framing and the use in gigantic construction;the chapter of wooden floor,roof and ceiling includes the kinds of ceiling and roof. Lastly there is an introduction on interior woodworking.Difficulty on finding Roman woodworking hard evidence and materials made it hard to get a better look at this fascinating topic, but the study on the ancient roman architectural material is more valuble than it looks. It is evident that roman woodworking parallels with modern woodworking in many major aspects. And there will be a promising future of study on roman woodworking as many evidence come to light.