What wood did the Romans make their crosses out of?

Answer 1

Original Answer: The crosses made by the Romans to crucify their robbers , were made of teak wood . This method of punishment was brought to Rome from Asia Minar. Todays Turkey.

Corrected Answer: This is a difficult question to answer as there isn't much archaelogical evidence available. The executed were left out to decompose, which included the wood they were crucified on. As it pertains to The Bible and the crucifixion of Christ, the Bible does not state the wood used.

According to the information sited below, OLIVE wood is a possible source, which was plentiful in Jerusalem and the now-known country of Israel. Here are the comments found on Wikipedia about crucifixion:

Archaeological evidence for ancient crucifixionDespite the fact that the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, as well as other sources, refer to the crucifixion of thousands of people by the Romans, there is only a single archaeological discovery of a crucified body dating back to the Roman Empire around the time of Jesus which was discovered in Jerusalem in 1968. It is not necessarily surprising that there is only one such discovery, because a crucified body was usually left to decay on the cross and therefore would not be preserved. The only reason these archaeological remains were preserved was because family members gave this particular individual a customary burial.

The remains were found accidentally in an ossuary with the crucified man's name on it, 'Yehohanan, the son of Hagakol'.[32][33] Prof. Nicu Haas, an anthropologist at the Hebrew University Medical School in Jerusalem, examined the ossuary and discovered that it contained a heel bone with a nail driven through its side, indicating that the man had been crucified. The position of the nail relative to the bone indicates that the feet have been nailed to the cross from their side, not from their front; various opinions have been proposed as to whether they were both nailed together to the front of the cross or one on the left side, one on the right side. The point of the nail had olive wood fragments on it indicating that he was crucified on a cross made of olive wood or on an olive tree. Since olive trees are not very tall, this would suggest that the condemned was crucified at eye level. Additionally, a piece of acacia wood was located between the bones and the head of the nail, presumably to keep the condemned from freeing his foot by sliding it over the nail. His legs were found broken, perhaps as a means of hastening his death as described in John 19:31-35.[30] It is thought that, since in Roman times iron was expensive, the nails were removed from the dead body to cut the costs, which would help to explain why only one has been found, as the tip of the nail in question was bent in such a way that it couldn't be removed.

(Source: What_wood_did_the_romans_make_their_crosses_out_of)

As for teak being the wood used, it seems very unlikely since it does not grow naturally in the Mediterranian or across Europe where the Romans occupied and conquered. As such, it is very unlikely they would seek out such a hard-to-find wood to crucify criminals. It is more likely they used whatever wood was available to their region. Here are comments stating where teak can be found:

"Teak (Tectona grandis)...occurs naturally only in India, Myanmar, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Thailand, and it is naturalized in Java, Indonesia, where it was probably introduced some 400 to 600 years ago."

(Source: http://pacificteak.com/teak%20trends.pdf)

AND

"[Teak] is indigenous to only four countries, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Lao PDR..."

(Source: http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/AC773E/ac773e07.htm)