Tree-Ring Dating of Wood Elements Used for Tongmyungjeon Hall of Changkyung Palace - The Year of Transforming from Ondol Rooms to Wooden Floors-

창경궁 통명전 목부재의 연륜연대 측정 -방에서 마루로 변형된 시기규명을 중심으로-

Tree-ring chronologies can be used to date historical buildings by matching them with the chronologies of living trees or previously dated samples. Tree-ring dating gives a calendar year to each tree ring and produces the felling dates of logs or woods which had been used for buildings. In Korea, several chronologies of Japanese red pine(Pinus densiflora Sieb. et Zucc., 'sonamu' in Korean), a major species for the wooden building materials, have been developed and used for dating historical buildings. In this study, Tongmyungjeon Hall of Changkyung Palace in Seoul was dated by tree rings. The present Tongmyungjeon Hall was known to be reconstructed in A.D. 1834 after burned-out in A.D. 1790. We sampled total of 122 wood samples which were replaced during the repair process in 2002-2003. Felling dates of the samples were determined by the dendrochronological crossdating method. Crossdating method employs graphic comparison of the master patterns (ring-width chronologies of known dates) with those of the sample chronologies of unknown dates. Tree-ring dates confirmed that the reconstruction of 1834 utilized second-handed timbers as well as fresh-cut ones. The felling dates of wooden floor frames were mostly A.D. 1913, indicating the 'Ondol' floors were changed to the wooden floors around 1914 when the Japanese rulers brutally destroyed the royal Korean Palaces and transformed palace buildings to their offices or exhibition halls after occupying Korea in 1910. This study proved that tree-ring dating was a useful and accurate method to identify the critical dates for the history of Korean traditional buildings.