On Wednesday (Sept. 20), archaeologists said that they had discovered the oldest wooden structure ever discovered, dating back nearly half a million years. This discovery suggests that our ancestors may have been more evolved than previously thought.
The astonishingly well-preserved wooden structure was found at Kalambo Falls in northern Zambia, not far from the Tanzanian border.
According to a paper that describes the discovery and was just published in the journal Nature, it predates the emergence of Homo sapiens by at least 476,000 years.
The structure is built of wood that displays cut marks from stone tools being used to join two large logs together. It is believed to have been a platform, walkway, or raised dwelling to keep our ancestors above the water.
Numerous wooden tools, including a wedge and a digging stick, were also discovered there.
It was already known that early humans had occasionally used wood for particular purposes, such as preparing for a hunt or starting a fire.
The oldest wooden building on record, according to Larry Barham, an archaeologist at the University of Liverpool in the UK and the study’s lead author, was believed to be about 9,000 years old.
At the site, which is located above a 235-meter-high waterfall on the banks of the Kalambo River, Barham asserted that the building was a “chance discovery” discovered in 2019.
Such old wood is rarely discovered since it typically rots away, leaving little to be recorded in history.
But it’s believed that Kalambo Falls’ building has survived the years because of the area’s high water table.
“SKILLS” and “IMAGINATION”
Some wood was discovered during 1950s and 1960s excavations at the Kalambo site, but it could not be precisely dated.
This time, however, the researchers employed a novel technique called luminescence dating, which establishes age by measuring the most recent exposure of minerals to sunlight.
This showed that the structure was at least 476,000 years older than the researchers had originally believed.
Homo sapiens is said to have first appeared some 300,000 years ago.
However, Homo heidelbergensis fossils, considered to have existed between 700,000 and 200,000 years ago, have been discovered in the area, according to Barham.
The discovery of the wooden building, according to Barham, “changed how I thought about these people.”
He remarked, “Even if it was just by building a platform to sit on by the river to complete their daily duties, they modified their environment to make life easier.
“They created something they had never seen before, something that had never existed, using their intelligence, imagination, and skills.”
This implies an advanced degree of thought and “probably language,” he continued.
The construction “presupposes cognitive abilities such as planning and the ability to visualise the finished product,” according to Sophie Archambault de Beaune, an archaeologist at France’s Lyon 3 University who was not involved in the study.
But she told AFP that “these capacities were already assumed from the study of cut stone tools.”
The construction appears to be a permanent home close to the waterfalls, a perennial source of water, which, according to the study’s authors, undermines the notion that early humans were nomads.
Because the building might have been built seasonally rather than permanently, Archambault de Beaune advised that this theory had not yet been verified.
