A passionate and imaginative exploration of wood - the material that shaped human history. Wood - humankind's long-term partner in our evolution from woodland foragers to engineers of our own destiny - has no equal in strength, resilience, adaptability and availability. The Museum of the Wood Age investigates the influence of basic devices - wedge, inclined plane, screw, lever, wheel, axle and pulley - to reveal the myriad ways in which wood has been worked throughout human history.

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; Max Adams fashions a lattice of interconnected stories and objects that trace a path of human ingenuity across half a million years of history.