A major discovery shows that humans built wooden structures much earlier than previously believed, demonstrating the capability to work with wood long ago, nearly half a million years in the past according to new research by a team from the University of Liverpool and Aberystwyth University in the United Kingdom.
Research published in Nature describes the features of a well preserved wooden structure at the Kalambo Falls archaeological site in Zambia. Its history reaches back at least 476,000 years, predating the emergence of Homo sapiens.
Analyses indicate these early humans shaped and joined two large trunks to form a structure that may have served as the foundation of a platform or a component of a dwelling.
One trunk sits beneath the other and is connected to the second by a notch.
This is the oldest evidence anywhere in the world of deliberate log preparation for joining. Previously, evidence of wood use by early humans was limited to fire-making tools, digging sticks and spears.
Wood is rarely found in such ancient contexts because it tends to decay, but at Kalambo Falls sustained high water levels helped preserve the wood over time.
This discovery also challenges the view that Stone Age people were nomadic. At Kalambo Falls these populations not only had a reliable water source but the surrounding forest provided ample food, enabling them to settle and construct structures.
Professor Larry Barham from the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool noted that the finding shifts how we think about early ancestors. Forget the term Stone Age; these people used wood creatively to build something new and significant that had not existed before.
They transformed their environment to make daily life easier, even if it meant creating a riverbank platform to rest and work by the water. These people resembled us more closely than previously imagined.
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Expert dating of the finds was conducted by researchers from Aberystwyth University who employed luminescence dating techniques. This method reveals when minerals in the surrounding sand were last exposed to sunlight, establishing the age of the finds.
Professor Geoff Duller of Aberystwyth University explained that given the ancient age of the remains, dating the finds posed a substantial challenge, and luminescence dating was essential. These new dating methods extend our ability to peer further into the past and reconstruct sites that illuminate human evolution. The Kalambo Falls site was excavated in the 1960s alongside similar wood fragments, but their dating remained unclear until now.
The Kalambo Falls site sits along a 235-meter waterfall at the edge of Lake Tanganyika on the border between Zambia and Tanzania’s Rukwa region. The area is on the tentative list for UNESCO’s World Heritage List due to its archaeological significance.
Our research indicates this site is far older than previously believed, increasing its archaeological importance. This finding adds weight to the argument that the area deserves United Nations World Heritage status, according to Duller.
This research is part of the pioneering Deep Roots of Humanity project, which investigates how technology developed during the Stone Age. The project is funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and involves teams from the Zambia National Heritage Conservation Commission, Livingstone Museum, Moto Moto Museum and Lusaka National Museum.
Reference work: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06557-9
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