V.6.3
CARPENTRY JOINTS
I am intentionally not entering into a discussion of carpentry
joints, but refer the reader to the masterful review
of pre-medieval methods of jointing timbers, published by
Adelhart Zippelius in 1954,[222]
which discloses that all later
known methods of assembling timbers, such as halving
(Verkämmung), joining by mortice and tenon (Verzapfung),
and lapjoining (Verblattung) were in full use in the Iron
Age, some being attested for the Bronze Age and even for
the Younger Stone Age (fig. 300), including the very sophisticated
dovetail joint. In our reconstruction we have not
used any carpentry joints that are not well attested for the
Middle Ages. We cannot prove that all of these were in use
at the time of Louis the Pious. Some of them possibly were
not. But to anyone who is inclined to underrate the skill of
Carolingian carpenters we recommend a study of the intricate
carpentry joints discovered in the two fortified ninth-century
sites of Stellerburg[223]
and of Husterknupp.[224]
