Abstract
Abstract The Vienna Hofburg is a large complex of buildings of unique historic importance with historical wooden constructions from the 13th to the 20th century. Within its wooden roof constructions, rafting wedges were found, which proves that the timber used did not originate in the surroundings of Vienna but had to be transported to the city. An ascertainment of these residual traces in eleven wings of the Hofburg building was made; five different types (within two main groups) of rafting wedges and withies (softened twigs that can be used like short ropes to tie trunks together) were defined: (1) simple flat wedges, driven into the fresh wood; (2) round or squared wedges, with or without withies driven into bored wholes. It was not possible to trace back the origin of the construction timber by means of that typology. However, the combination of dendroprovenancing and historic records found in archives led to first results.
Highlights
The Vienna Hofburg is the biggest secular complex of buildings in Europe
It was not possible to trace back the origin of the construction timber by means of that typology
The historic site was the domicile of the Austrian leadership for over eight centuries, and it was a center of European politics
Summary
The Vienna Hofburg is the biggest secular complex of buildings in Europe. The historic site was the domicile of the Austrian leadership for over eight centuries, and it was a center of European politics. During the dendrochronological sampling, rafting wedges were located in each roof construction of the various parts of the Hofburg These traces of transport demonstrate that the high demand for wood in Vienna exceeded the supply from the surrounding forests in those times. The main aim of this study was to get a better understanding of the wood supply of Vienna by analyzing the traces of transport, rafting wedges, and withies. This should lead to a typology of raft construction systems for future use as a provenancing tool, as different raft types at the various tributaries of the Danube are described in literature (Neweklowsky 1952, 604; Sazenhofen 1980, 73).
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