A pivotal moment in the Koran is known as "The Battle of the Trench."

The Romans were something else. I was reading about the period around the Illyrian uprising recently, and learned that at that time, standard practice for a legion was to build a massive fort, trenches and all, every night they camped.

It's pretty incredible (and often terrible) what humans with hand tools can do when sufficiently organized and motivated.

The basic concept of a trench with something like a wooden barrier proximate goes back to neolithic times. Interestingly most of these sites we've found seem to not be fortifications but rather something ceremonial. It's ambiguous.