according to a new study of cut marks made by stone tools.
Archaeologists have unearthed the oldest known wooden structure, and it's almost half a million years old.
according to a new study of cut marks made by stone tools.
The simpel structure — found along a riverbank in Zambia — is made up of two interlocking logs, with a notch deliberately crafted into the upper piece to allow them to sehat together at right angles, according to a new studi of cut marks made by stone alat.
Geoff Duller, a professor of geography and Earth sciences at the University of Aberystwyth in the United Kingdom, was part of the kubu that made the discovery in 2019. He said the structure, excavated upstream of Kalambo Falls near Zambia's border with Tanzania, probably would have been part of a wooden basis used as a walkway, to keep food or firewood dry or perhaps as a base on which to build a dwelling. A digging stick and other wooden alat were found at the same site.
"That the wood has remained in place and intact for half a million years is extraordinary. And it gives us this real insight, this window into this time period," said Duller, coauthor of the studi on the wooden structure that published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
"It's completely changed my view of what people were capable of that time," he added.
Wood artifacts are rarely preserved in the archaeological record, particularly at such an ancient site, because organic material easily rots and disintegrates. At Kalambo, Duller said high water levels and fine sediment encasing the structure helped to preserve the wood.
The discovery challenges the prevailing view that Stone Age humans led a nomadic lifestyle, Duller said. Kalambo Falls would have provided a reliable source of water and the surrounding forest ample food, perhaps allowing for a more settled existence.
"At the very least, they're putting a huge amount of upaya into this place," he said.
The wooden structure has no real parallel in the archaeological record, according to the studi.
The earliest known wood artifact is a 780,000-year-old fragment of polished plank found at the site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel, while the oldest wooden alat for foraging and hunting on record — unearthed in Europe — date back about 400,000 years. It's thought that Neanderthals made structures from bones or stalactites around 175,000 years ago.
