However, a brief look around most timber framed buildings is enough to confirm the need for a strategy for isolating protection marks as a discrete phenomenon. It seems likely that carpenters and masons have drawn from a shared dictionary of basic signs for a variety of purposes. The dictionary is an accumulation of signs and ideograms1 derived from a wide variety of written languages and religious and secular symbols and several different approaches are needed to identify the non-protective marks. Most marks on building timbers are what are commonly known as carpenter's marks, employed to link together the components of a frame to assist accurate on-site erection of timber framed buildings. They are usually located close to a joint and run in numerical sequence through the framework of the building.
Confusion is likely to occur only where timbers are re-used.
This is not a problem if Roman numerals are used but carpenters sometimes added rune-like signs either to increase the possible permutations of available marks, or perhaps as a means of identifying themselves. Other types of mark connected with the construction of buildings have been identified as plumb and level marks. These are potentially confusing as they occasionally employ variants of the dagaz rune sign. An awareness of the significance of location in respect of both these and protective marks should be sufficient to distinguish between the two. Merchants' marks tend to be distinctively complex.