Re: Monday answer
John gets a star for the wood. Gary gets one for the location
The answer is Cedar. The location I was looking for is not ancient Egypt which used a lot of it or the Mid East, but the Northwest coast from Washington State up the coast through British Columbia to Alaska. These were the homes of the Haida, Salish, Kwakiutl, Tlingit, Timishian, Nootka, Quileute, and Makah...
Traceable history there is 9000 years old. Time has taken much of the old growth but a few live cedars today are dated at 1000 years. Those trees can have a base exceeding 14� in diameter and be 230 feet tall. Cedar is exceedingly versatile. It has a loose cellular structure that has better insulating qualities than hardwood. It is light weight, straight grained, is easily cleaved and split, and can be beaten to a fine thread like consistency. Cedar can be steamed, and bent. It can be woven so tightly it can serve as rainwear or split and hammered soft and fine so it allows urine to pass and keep a baby�s bottom both dry and warm. Textile study people often win grant money to learn a particular weave pattern/technique as the original cedar objects are still around, but the way to make them has passed or is dying every day. Cedar contains its own fungicide (thujaplicin) which can allow a fallen tree to be used even 100 years after it has fallen.
The log, bark, roots, and withes (branchlets) can be used for various things. The flexible withes can have a tensile strength of 10,000 lbs p.s.i. twice that of cedar wood planks and 30 % greater than Douglas fir. The inner bark is famous for its cordage making qualities and examples vary from thin lashing twisted �thread� to 1 �� braded rope used to keep whales from sinking after being harpooned from the hand hewn cedar boats, driven with cedar oars and cedar mat sails, manned by humans dressed in cedar garments, using lightweight cedar spears. Rope lengths lashed together horizontally around the torso also made an effective armor for warriors. One of the unusual uses for cedar was as a strong flexible line that was looped around an almost born child (breech birth?). The mother helped her birthing by bracing her feet then pushing away while holding/pulling on the line in a pulley style arrangement (around a post) to assist in moving the child out of her womb. Strong women these. Many tribes of the Northwest were raiders and high ranking leaders regularly had a dozen or so slaves. Slaving, which was a brisk business throughout the region (but rarely discussed) used cedar bark rope bindings and enclosures.
Totem poles are cedar. There are few poles permitted these days but with the right connections, and cash, it is still possible to get a 2 ft wide board nine feet long. Next time you look at a pencil remember too that cedar was selected because it is plentiful and easily machined but also because it can be chewed safely.
References are: �Cedar� by Hilary Stewart;