MUSEUM OF THE WOOD AGE

From tools and devices to construction and artistic expression, Max Adams explores wood, the material that has shaped human history. An archaeologist and woodsman, he explores themes of landscapes, knowledge and human connectiveness with the earth. As a material, wood has no equal in strength, resilience, adaptability and availability and has been our partner in the cultural evolution from woodland foragers to engineers of our own destiny. Tracing that partnership, Adams explores the role that wood has played in our own history as an imaginative, curious and resourceful species. He begins with an account of how early humans learned the properties and uses of wood and trees and investigates the influence of six basic devices - lever, wedge, windlass, sprig, cordage and float. From the simple bivouacs of hunter-gatherers to sophisticated wooden buildings such as stave churches, from the decorative arts to the humble woodworking of rustic furniture, he shows the great transformations through stories of carpenters, wheelwrights and fire bringers, potters and their kilns, of copper, tin, bronze, colliers, purification, alchemy and stories about the technology of bushfire told by the Ju/wasi hunter-foragers of the Kalahari Desert and their mastery of fire. An endlessly fascinating collection brought right up to date with wood management. Engravings and many illustrations, 441pp.