For the chop

Here's a thing, roaming through Brinken Wood this morning we stumbled upon something interesting, two adjacent young Oaks, of near identical girth, have been chopped down with axes. At first I wondered whether it was some bushcraft project, though no, the trunks remained where they'd fallen. Maybe it was a felling competition or something. Whatever, it seems a touch wasteful to fell timber for no purpose. The stumps are weathered and the branches of the trunks are all but weathered away, these trees were felled some years ago. The archaeologist in me found the age of the event interesting and I wondered how long such evidence of human activity survives and what messages the might have purveyed? In the past when people were more mobile or when the country was less inhabited features like felled trees would certainly have suggested you may have entered already occupied/used territory, they could've been used as territorial markers or marked seasonal camping sites. Of course, I tend to over think things. The facets on the stumps suggest that smallish axes were used, something like a small forest axe or hatchet, and wood-chips could still be identified amongst the leaf litter. I reckon by the weathering and state of preservation, these trees were downed a decade (?) ago. I'll never know what the motivations were here, beyond chopping down a couple of trees, of course. Another story in the forest's infinite library, listed under 'mystery', the library's most expansive section.