In the heart of Africa, Archaeologists have discovered the oldest evidence yet of a wooden structure crafted by the hands of a human ancestor. Two tree trunks, notched like Lincoln Logs, were discovered at the bottom of Zambia's Kalambo River. If the logs' estimated age of 476,000 years is correct, it means that woodworking predates the emergence of our own species, Homo sapiens, and demonstrates the intelligence of our hominin ancestors.
Archaeologists discovered the logs at Kalambo Falls, on Lake Tanganyika in northern Zambia near the Tanzanian border, a site that has been studied by scientists since the 1950s. Previous excavations near the falls yielded stone tools, preserved pollen, and wooden artifacts that have helped researchers learn more about human evolution and culture over hundreds of thousands of years.
A new analysis of five modified pieces of wood from Kalambo, however, is pushing back the site's earliest occupation and providing researchers with new insight into the minds of our Middle Pleistocene ancestors.
Researchers describe the wooden objects they discovered in a recently published new study. Two were discovered with stone tools below the river and three were discovered covered in clay deposits above the river level. Because of the permanently elevated water table, these wooden artifacts have survived for hundreds of thousands of years.
