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1 results

  • 2 - The Silent Roofing Revolution

  • Edited by Charlotte R. Potts, University of Oxford
  • Book:
    Architecture in Ancient Central Italy
    Published online:
    31 March 2022
    Print publication:
    07 April 2022, pp 31-61

  • Summary

    This chapter re-examines tie-beam trusses and argues that their invention arose from the woodworking techniques and tools honed in the construction of Bronze and Iron Age palafitte houses (pile dwellings). Showing that the earlier type of architecture developed in response to particular environmental conditions, it establishes that early builders had extensive knowledge of the potential of their raw materials and how they could be engineered. Out of this came the truss as a refinement in wooden roof structures that was able to counter the side loads of heavy tiled roofs when the latter came into use during the seventh century BC. Through its eventual use in the sizeable roofs of basilicas in the fourth century AD, the truss represents a form of woodworking expertise that connects architecture in Italy from the Bronze Age through to Late Antiquity.