Evidence has established that the pyramid builders had buildings framed with timbers as did the people of King Solomon's time. Greek temples of stone were simply imitations of earlier wooden structures. The scarcity of wood in the region apparently led to the development of a more elaborate stone working technology in the last few centuries B.C.
In India, Japan, and northern Europe virgin primeval forests existed and so the joinery for connecting large timbers into a structural framework developed as a craft. Trees were felled, dragged from the forests, and hand hewn into square and rectangular shapes. These timbers were then connected into massive "timber framed" buildings without using metal fasteners of any kind. Instead, these large timbers were joined together using furniture quality mortise and tenon and dovetail notches anchored with thick pegs or "tree nails". A post and beam structure of this kind was considered a more permanent dwelling designed to last for centuries. As the craft progressed each geographical area developed its own unique style of timber framing..
By the 1600s the heart of timber framing, wooden joinery, was the secret and profession of the craft guilds. Only those apprentices who would dedicate many years of their lives were taught this centuries old art form. These guild housewrights and joiners were responsible for some of the finest examples of refined timber joinery surviving today, (i.e. Westminster Hall in London, England). These early builders were master craftsmen whose only advertising was their reputation and word of mouth. There were few building codes or inspectors. Their work was based on quality and personal integrity. Their profession made them the engineers, architects, and builders of that age. Unlike frame carpentry today, their work often remained plainly visible for all to see. Their success is evident in the millions of timber framed buildings around the world built in the Middle Ages and still in use today.
With the colonizing of America and her old growth forests of huge trees, massive timber frames using simple unadorned joinery became the norm. Most of us today are familiar with these timber framed buildings. We may have seen old barns with huge wooden beams supporting large open spaces. We may have noticed sturdy timbers providing a sense of strength and warmth in many colonial homes and churches of New England. For two thousand years timber framing was the conventional method of building with wood throughout the world, and thus developed into a highly precise craft.
Then, suddenly, the craft began to rapidly disappear in the middle 1800s. The reasons are simple. The invention of a means to mass produce nails combined with the explosion community sawmills produced small pieces of lumber with a cheap, quick way of putting them together. This new method of building, developed in Chicago in the 1830s, was called balloon framing. Requiring much less time and skill to enclose a building, this new system was ideal for rapidly burgeoning American population and the expansion westward. Strength, the natural beauty of wood, and the ability to last for centuries were long term qualities sacrificed in favor of the immediate housing needs of a more mobile population. Architects of the day acknowledged the shortage of timber joiners and the housing needs solved by this new framing system, but lamented the shortcomings of this "flimsy, temporary" form of housing designed to last only a few decades. As time went on this new lightweight construction system evolved into platform framing or "stud construction" as we know it today.
In the early 1970s a rediscovering the craft of timber framing began. Old buildings were dismantled, joinery secrets were revealed, and historical precedents were followed and improved upon in newly constructed timber framed homes. Unlike past generations, timber frames today are finished and left exposed to the inside of the dwelling. Modern, high tech, foam core building panels wrap the exteriors of these frames forming walls and roof systems of almost unparalleled strength and insulation value. The popularity of this ancient art seems due to a lot of folks looking for the Old World quality and attention to detail found in a finely crafted timber frame home.