The unique collection of bog oak was tailor-made and delivered to BSTU Wood Library (Xylotheque) by Trans-Centre LLC which specializes in extraction and processing of natural bog oak. The age of the wood samples ranges from 500 to 10,000 years.
Vyacheslav Zvyagintsev, wood library (xylotheque) curator, associate professor of the Department of Forest Protection and Wood Science, PhD (Biology) believes that this acquisition is an extraordinarily important global-scale event. ?
‘We are the only research centre worldwide which has such a comprehensive collection of standard bog oak samples that have been carefully age-dated.’ ??
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The collection offers unique opportunities for thorough study of fossilized wood, its properties, composition, and maturation processes that turn the wood from golden brown to completely black. Bog oak, which is one of the rarest and most expensive woods in the world, is characterized by its dark color diversity,?eye-catching wood structure and unparalleled strength and hardness, as brought on by centuries and millennia of fossilization.
The scholar thinks the collection has not only scientific but also historical value: ?
‘The wood comes from trees that were growing in the territory of Belarus millennia of years ago. We must keep in mind that today the bog oak is becoming a non-renewable material.’
Vyacheslav Zvyagintsev also mentioned that Trans Centre LLC is the only company in Belarus and its neighboring countries that knows how to explore and extract bog oak. The company also maintains a classified collection of this unique natural resource.
It has been estimated that bog oak reserves in Belarus amount to less than 550 thousand m3. The bog oak could be defined as a national brand of the republic. The unmatched bog oak collection housed at the BSTU xylotheque provides ample opportunities for study of the relict wood. The university scholars will work to improve exploration and extraction technology and to promote the sought-after material on domestic and foreign markets. ???
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