Prehistoric deforestation was staggering. The Hindwell I, Enclosure in Wales — the largest known — needed roughly 1,400 mature oaks. A Negev copper smelting site shut down when all nearby timber was burned as fuel, only resuming when Romans imported wood. Bronze Age metalworking added huge timber demands atop everyday Neolithic needs. 🌳
Deforestation scale revealed by Hindwell, Negev smelting, and West Kennet
Site mentioned
📍 Hindwell I, Enclosure🌍 Show on the globe
Key facts
- The Hindwell I, Enclosure in Wales, the largest known, required approximately 1,500 large oak trees for its construction
- A copper smelting site in the Negev desert ceased operations because all timber within miles had been consumed as fuel
- The Negev smelting site only resumed operation when the Romans imported wood for fuel
- Bronze Age copper smelting added massive timber demands on top of everyday Neolithic needs for building, cooking, and heating
- Timber posts in pile dwellings are preserved in lake silts, which is the primary context for surviving Neolithic timber evidence
Sources
Hindwell Enclosure - The Modern Antiquarianthemodernantiquarian.com
It was an oval shape 800 by 400m, enclosing 34 ha (Maiden Castle is only 17.2ha), with a circumference of 2.3km. If you look at the map, that ...
The Neolithic Palisaded Enclosure at Hindwell, Powys, Walesjna.uni-kiel.de
Neolithic systems of ditches, embankments and - sometimes - palisade structures represent the majority of the European causewayed enclosures.
The Hindwell Enclosure - Stonehenge on steroids? - Almost Historyalmosthistorypodcast.com
Covering an area of 55 football pitches and demarcated by 1400 mature oak trees, the Hindwell Enclosure would have been an imposing monument ...
[PDF] Walton Palisaded Enclosurewalesher1974.org
1.3. At the time of its construction the most impressive monument in the Walton Basin would have been the very large palisaded enclosure at Hindwell. Defined by ...
Palisaded Enclosure at Hindwell - jungsteinSITEjungsteinsite.uni-kiel.de
Enclosures consisting purely of palisades are quite an exception up to now, especially, if they are as monumental as the Hindwell site in Wales.
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