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Written Artefact Profiling Guide
Written ArtefactProfiling Guide

Photo: CSMC

Written Artefact Profiling Guide

Wood

No other plant-based substance has had such a strong influence on the history of mankind as wood. In fact, wood has ubiquitously been used to host writing, either by producing entire WAs, such as tablets, pothis’ leaves, plaques and steles, or part of them, such as the covers of books, codices, concertinas and pothis. Furthermore, wood has been used to fashion objects of all sorts (tools and wares, statues, etc.) that can in turn be variously written upon through carving or painting.

With today’s ever growing economic and environmental problems, wood as a raw material takes on increasing significance as the most important renewable source of energy and as construction material. Its chemical and anatomical structure and the resulting excellent properties allow wood to be processed into the most widely differing products; from logs to veneers and furniture and from wood chippings to pulp, paper and wood-based panels. Products such as viscose fibres and cellulose nitrate lacquer can be obtained from cellulose derived from wood. With regard to palm-leaf manuscripts, wooden covers are an essential component and protect the important text carriers from all kinds of wear and tear as well as pathogenic organisms. These days, however, the use of wood is not only a matter of economic importance but also has environmental relevance. Rising concentrations of atmospheric CO2 are counteracted, in the first instance, by the photosynthesis in trees and, indirectly, by the use of wood. Together, they reduce the CO2 content of the air and hence help to avert the threat of climatic changes.

Annual rings in wood are caused by periodic growth activity of the trees.  Their width can fluctuate strongly from year to year depending on various environmental factors, in particular the amount of precipitation. Wood can be divided fundamentally into dicotyledon and coniferous woods; in other words hardwoods and softwoods. Ageing of wood causes important changes to occur in the heartwood, the centre of the stem: older annual rings no longer transport water or store nutrients but instead often store compounds such as resins, tannins, rubber or oils which increase natural durability. The lighter, conducting wood is called sapwood in contrast to the dark non-conducting heartwood. The ratio between heart- and sapwood and the extent of their variations differ strongly from species to species. Yew and robinia for example, have only very thin sapwood layers whereas ash and maple have wide layers and there is hardly any visible difference between heartwood and sapwood in trees such as poplar and willow. This description can merely touch upon the many wide-ranging aspects of wood sciences. However, it is clear that our invaluable wood resource can only be maintained in the long term and used in an economically and environmentally sensible way if scientific research into wood is continued.

Wood analyses can help to understand cultural heritage, as conclusions can be drawn about customs, availability, craftsmanship, and symbolism based on the origin and type of wood used. In addition, the analysis can be applied to assign wooden artefacts to their manufacturers, determine their authenticity or obtain information about their storage and restoration (Monaco et al. 2018; Walsh-Korb et al. 2019).

A whole range of analytical methods is suitable for the chemical analysis of wood. These include DNA-based methods to determine wood species, but also proteomics, metabolomics and isotopolomics approaches to be able to verify the geographical origin or the authenticity, for example (Creydt et al. 2021; Creydt et al. 2022).

Relevant analytical methods: