ABOVE: ©ISTOCK.COM, MEHMET GÖKHAN BAYHAN
The 12,000-plus-year-long German oak-pine chronology has not only helped us to fine-tune radiocarbon dating; it has also provided an absolute timeline for wooden archeological finds that recount the story of more than 7,000 years of wood use in European culture. Some of the earliest wooden settlements in Europe date back to the Neolithic (the new stone age, starting ca. 6,000 BCE), when the practice of agriculture first spread across the continent. Many early Neolithic farming communities developed around water sources and made ample use of wood for construction because it was a widely available resource that required no sophisticated tools for processing. Neolithic communities constructed small residences on top of posts or piles in lake or bog wetlands that were easily defensible. Such pile dwellings were constructed throughout Europe and were inhabited from the late Neolithic until the end of the Bronze Age, around 500 ...
