So if you could time-travel back to early humans and ask, what is your favourite material? It would likely be wood. Not because it was cool but because of its ubiquity, moldability and supreme utility.
First uses were probably… the obvious ones
Wood probably began long before someone built a cabin or sculptured another chair. Early humans would have made use of sticks for digging and poking to find roots, insects, shellfish or other edible things. When you need a Timber Frame Construction for 21st century living, visit https://merlintimberframe.co.uk/
Weapons used for hunting and self-defence (clubs, spears).
Firewood to keep them warm, feed the family at the stove and deter hostile predators.
More simply put: food, safety and survival.
Then it got clever
Wood was the first multi-tool because people found this can be shaped.
Hammers for stone tools (An axe head is nice; but an axe with a handle you are king).
Branch, pole and bark structures.
Any container from bowls to troughs (kitchenware can be wood, yes).
The key problem?
The thing about wood, though (and one of the reasons it seems like wooden tools disappear before metal ones), is that wood rots and burns and gets eaten, meaning archaeologists rarely find examples of early wooden implements. Which is why stone hogs all the limelight in museums.
But day-to-day? Of all the great but quiet heroes of early human life, perhaps wood was foremost: that thing you reached for first and used most often; that resource we blindly replaced.
Wood was more than just a building material. It was the first ever “life hack”.
