A new study has found that modified logs dating back to approximately 476,000 years ago could be the oldest evidence of wooden structures. According to Larry Barham, an archaeologist at the University of Liverpool in England, this challenges preconceptions about what is considered sophisticated and complex behavior. Barham states, “For me, settling into one place and changing the landscape, that is very sophisticated.”
Humans and their ancestors have been using wood in various ways for a long time. The earliest known example of modified wood is a polished plank from Israel dating back to around 780,000 years ago. However, wooden tools didn’t appear in the historical record until about 400,000 years ago. Prior to this study, the oldest known wooden structure was from around 9000 B.C.
In 2019, Barham and his colleagues discovered five modified wooden objects in the exposed bank of a river flowing into the top of Kalambo Falls in Zambia. The area is abundant with forests and has a consistently high water table, making it an ideal location for human habitation. Additionally, the water prevents oxygen from reaching buried wood. Although archaeologists have been excavating ancient technologies in this area since the 1950s, wooden objects couldn’t be accurately dated and clear modifications had been eroded.
2023-09-20 10:01:21
Source from www.sciencenews.org