Mortise and tenon

[1] The word tenon, a noun in English since the late 14th century, developed its sense of "a projection inserted to make a joint" from the Old French 'tenir' "to hold".

One of the earliest mortise-tenon structure examples dates back 7,000 years to the Hemudu culture in China's Zhejiang Province.

[5] Mortise and tenon joints have also been found joining the wooden planks of the "Khufu ship",[6] a 43.6 m (143 ft) long vessel sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex of the Fourth Dynasty around 2500 BC.

[7] Mortise and tenon joints have also been found in ancient furniture from archaeological sites in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

Many instances are found, for example, in ruins of houses in the Silk Road kingdom of Cadota, dating from the first to the 4th century BC.

[11] A variation of the mortise and tenon technique, called Phoenician joints (from the Latin coagmenta punicana)[12][13] was extensively used in ancient shipbuilding to assemble hull planks and other watercraft components together.

The assembly is then locked in place by driving a dowel through one or more holes drilled through mortise side wall and tenon.

Diagram of a mortise (left) and tenon (right)
Tusked-through tenons used on a French granary
1) Through tenon and 2) mortise as a shouldered joint
Egyptian stool with through tenons, c. 1991–1450 BC
Drawing of a wooden ship with annotations of hull elements.
Ship hull demonstrating the Phoenician joint technique of locked (pegged) mortise and tenon
Experimental archaeology ; cutting a mortise with a cannonbone chisel
A through mortise is used in this wooden hinge.
Brick mold from ancient Egypt held together with mortise joints
Two tusked through tenons are used to hold the trestles of this trestle table together.