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Comment by kortilla | Hacker News Reader

Didn’t say anything about it being an iron civilization.

Well metal is critical because it's really really hard to chop wood without metal. So you've got stones, bones, and loose timber to work with. About the closest evidence I can find is Mezhirich, a small paleolithic village built out of mammoth bones: https://www.thoughtco.com/mezhirich-mammoth-bone-settlement-... about 18000 years ago.

The mesoamerican civilizations used no iron

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallurgy_in_pre-Columbian_...

They did chop trees with stone tools. Here you can see how:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BN-34JfUrHY

Yes well I'm talking about chopping trees down and building homes out of them (and enough homes for a civilization). No doubt smaller sticks and loose timber could be used, that's how man mastered fire in the first place. But chopping whole trees probably didn't happen much until after metal.

You can build enough homes for a civilisation without felling any big trees at all. Stone, clay bricks, earth, small trees and branches, straw, etc. would be sufficient.

Even felling big trees doesn't need iron tools - controlled fire will do most of the work: http://www.cherokeeheritage.org/attractions/dugout-canoe/

That looks extremely laborious but it's a fascinating technique. It still limits the amount of lumber one group can use. I agree on clay (in some regions) and stone being available and useable. It still says nothing about supporting a civilization, which requires agriculture.

You're moving goalposts, but early civilisations supported themselves with agriculture before developing metal-working: https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/development-of-ag... https://www.ancient.eu/Stone_Age/

> Yes well I'm talking about chopping trees down and building homes out of them

https://youtu.be/zVPUFMwm73Y?t=228

Relevant: Coppice

Large-scale wood-based construction in paleolithic cultures did exist, notably in the Alps:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_pile_dwellings_aro...

Not fine woodworking, perhaps, but possible.

Most early construction was based on found shelter (caves), hides, sod or turf, brick, or stone. Locally-available and hand-workable with very simple tools.

5000-500 B.C. is not the paleolithic era. That's well into the Neolithic and Bronze age.

Point. "Neolithic/early bronze" is stated in the article. Point being that working wood with stone tools happened.

Ale native American lodgehouses and pueblos (adobe walls, timber roofs), also stone tools.

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