Half-million-year-old wooden structure unearthed in Zambia

[Judi Lynn]

29. Archaeologists Uncover Notched Logs That May Be the Oldest Known Wooden Structure

The interlocking pieces, found near a waterfall in Zambia, date to 476,000 years ago—before Homo sapiens evolved

Will Sullivan
Daily Correspondent
September 22, 2023 2:24 p.m.

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of the oldest wooden structure on record: a pair of interlocking logs connected by a notch that date to 476,000 years ago.

Discovered along the Kalambo River in Zambia, the simple construction predates the first appearance of Homo sapiens in Africa. The discovery, detailed in a new paper published Wednesday in Nature, suggests human ancestors built structures made of wood and may have been more complex than previously thought.

“This is a disruptive discovery,” Larry Barham, a co-author of the new study and an archaeologist at the University of Liverpool in England, tells Scientific American’s Tom Metcalfe. “I never would have thought that pre-Homo sapiens would have had the capacity to plan something like this.”

“It’s an important window into what these humans were capable of,” Annemieke Milks, an archaeologist at the University of Reading in England who did not contribute to the research, tells Maddie Burakoff of the Associated Press (AP).

Wooden artifacts typically don’t survive for millennia because they break down, disappearing from the historical record if they’re not well-preserved. But in this case, the researchers think that water may have protected the wood, which was discovered near a waterfall, per the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-uncover-notched-logs-that-may-be-the-oldest-known-wooden-structure-180982942/