We learn about human civilization through the successive ages of stone, bronze, and iron. This classification is based on the materials used to make tools, with long-lasting materials such as stone and metal serving as the standard.
But it is highly likely that humans used wood before that. It was light, easy to shape, and available almost everywhere. The problem is that wood is organic matter that rots and disappears. For this reason, the “Wooden Age” has not yet become an archaeological periodization.
The Schöningen Spears
In the 1990s, several wooden spears were discovered in a lignite mine in Schöningen, Lower Saxony, Germany. The longest was more than 2 meters long, and showed signs of having been carved heavier toward the front to maintain balance when thrown. They were not simple sticks but hunting tools made with deliberate intent.
Traces of Wood on the Korean Peninsula
Wooden artifacts are rare in Korea as well, but they are relatively well preserved at wetland sites with high moisture levels. A representative example is the Neolithic log boat excavated at the Bibong-ri site in Changnyeong. As agriculture began, wood became a material for tools and houses, evolving beyond a means of survival into a material that connected people with their environment.
Stone remains. Wood disappears. The difference between these materials became, in turn, a difference in how history was written.
Wood is lighter than stone, easier to work than metal, and varies in color and grain depending on where it grows. This is why specialty wood should be seen not simply as “material,” but as a trace of culture.
Manuscript: Woodway Magazine manuscript, Chapter 2, “Wood, Humanity’s First Material” (2025)
