A fence is just a short wall. Surely a caveman invented that alongside the wheel. And you would be right. But what’s more impressive is the fact that we’re still using it and innovating on the idea today.
Life Before Fences
Let’s travel 100,000 years back in time to the Stone Age! Or the late Paleolithic era, to be specific. When we imagine cavemen, this is what we think about.
People lived in packs or tribes of around 150 – 250 people. You were either a hunter or a gatherer (though you would switch jobs depending on the resources available). We were nomadic, meaning we had no permanent home. And why would we? We needed to follow the herd animals we depend on for food.
But it’s a little rude to think of them as dumb cavemen. Our early ancestors used language to outsmart predators and plan out hunts. They created calendars to follow the migration and breeding patterns of their prey. Some historians even believed they studied the stars to help them travel. But with no permanent shelter, what use would a fence be?
We invented fences alongside farming.
Roughly 12,000 years ago, early humans invented agriculture (the Neolithic revolution). Instead of chasing after the food, let’s just raise the food near us!
This is when we started domesticating animals like sheep, goats, and cattle. So we needed fencing to protect them from predators and prevent them from wandering off. These fences were often made of piled stones, stacked brush, or woven branches.
If you lived during this time, you would spend most of your time farming. However, early cats would hang around the fences to catch rodents attracted to our crops. You and your neighbors would open up the animal pens to let them graze under the supervision of your herding dogs.
In the evening, you would lock the animals back up in their pens. You may even trade some animals or crops with neighboring villages. During the night, as you slept in a multi-generational home, others would patrol the fenced-in community protecting everyone from predators.
Staying in one guarded place helped us develop over the next couple of thousand years. But all these fences were communal. They protected the village, not just your house.
It wasn’t until the Romans that we used fences to mark property.
The Romans (roughly 2,500 years ago) pioneered purpose-built fencing. They used stones and even metal barriers to define property lines as well as protect their roads and aqueducts.
Later on, wealthier estates could spend money to make their fences look pretty.
Through the 15th -19th centuries, wealthy people used wrought iron and cast iron to make grand, ornamental gates and fences. Fences became a status symbol.
For example, the Palace of Versailles fenced in over 1,000 acres of elaborate gardens for the exclusive enjoyment of wealthy nobles.
American Innovations
In 1862, the United States implemented the Homestead Act. Basically, anyone willing to settle the vast, barren Great Plains would get 160 acres completely free. You just had to use it. So settlers invented barbed wire. These fences required significantly less materials than a traditional wooden fence. Barbed wire could be easily mass-produced and installed across hundreds of acres.
In the late 1800s, the industrial revolution mass-produced wrought iron, cast iron, steel, and wire mesh fencing. These were mainly used for industrial purposes for factories or prisons.
The Last 100 Years of Fencing
The post-war world 2 economic boom led to suburban developments. Many homeowners wanted something aesthetically pleasing to mark their property. So advertisers in the 1950s and 60s created that white-picket fence, two-and-a-half-kids nuclear family trend.
Now, aluminum metal has been used in construction for over 100 years. For example, the Empire State Building uses aluminum spandrels for structural support. But we didn’t use it for residential fencing until around the turn of the millennium. And it has taken off!
We’ve been using fences for over 10,000 years because of their simplicity.
Today, we don’t have to spend most of our days farming like our early ancestors did. Instead, you can sit out on your back porch with a refreshing drink. You wave to your neighbors as they do the same. You watch your children play in the safety of your yard. Your dog cheerfully runs around after them while your cat scowls from the window.
A lot has changed in the last 10,000 years, but the need for a protected haven hasn’t. If history is any indication of the future, then we’ll probably still be using fences in another 10,000 years!