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Wooden standing stones - I don't see why not. Huge timbers were definitely used waaay back at Stonehenge (under the carpark actually) and at the palisaded henges. If there was some 'religious' (or whatever) significance then why shouldn't they have been carved or etched? distinguishing them from more practical defensive or animal-penning fences? Though seahenge isn't carved I suppose. I don't think you could carve a living tree without killing it though (unless you include the growing bark graffiti you see on beeches).

Paint is an interesting idea. Ok they didn't have cans of dulux. But there's evidence that colour was important at some sites (I have got some info on this but not yet written up) - well, Silbury hill's once-blazing whiteness for a start, but also the actual colours of some stones in stone circles. After all, think of those medieval churches you've been in, or the Roman statues you've seen that are apparently minimalist and plain - in fact they were brightly painted once. So with a few mineral and plant-based concoctions, why not on wood, or even stones?

It has been suggested that the 'uncarvable' stone used in the Carrowkeel passage graves may have been painted, but no direct evidence has been found. The conjecture comes from the Iberian examples which still have 5000 year old paint on them.

There was a huge wooden pole in the centre of Navan Fort in NI. Would you just erect a 50 foot tree trunk and leave it plain? Maybe, but odds are that it would have been decorated somehow. Then again a 50 ft pole is pretty damned impressive in its own right.

I think you have to look at the area you are in. Ireland and the UK was glaciated and there's a lot of eratics lying around to use. No need for quarrying.

Although many Bronze Age wooden things have turned up in the Irish Bogs there are not many earlier things.

A few carved figures (just 3 or 4 foot high) have been recovered. As an aside, these have dowel hole in the groin, possibly to slot in a huge ... erm ... right ... is that the time?