Cultural history of wood for book on wood-moisture interactions

Hi Everyone

I am writing a book on wood-moisture interactions.

One of my goals in the book is to make it as exciting as possible to as many people as possible. I am starting the book with a section about why wood is such an important material and how water has influenced our use of wood since pre-history.

I am trying to include lots of anecdotes about the historical importance of wood. For instance, the King’s Broad Arrow policy of claiming eastern white pines for ship masts was one of the flash points of the American Revolutionary War and that the Ottoman Empire burned as much wood as a city of 200,000 people would burn each year just to make saltpeter for gunpowder. However, most of the anecdotes or stories about wood I was able to find were focused on the Americas or Western Europe. 

I would love to make the book truly global in scope and share anecdotes about the importance of wood from as many cultures as possible. If you have a story about the importance of wood in the history (or prehistory) of your country please share it in this thread!