News Anthropology

Interlocking logs may be evidence of the oldest known wooden structure

Roughly 480,000-year-old wood hints early hominids were more technically skilled than realized

A photo of an person on their hands and knees digging into the ground.

Archaeologists uncover a wooden structure dating to 476,000 years ago at Kalambo Falls in Zambia.

Larry Barham/Univ. of Liverpool

By Richard Kemeny

Modified logs dating to about 476,000 years ago might be the oldest evidence of wooden structures, a new study finds.

Wooden artifacts decompose easily and are relatively scant in the archaeological record compared with stone or bone. The new finding, reported September 20 in Nature, suggests that the structural use of wood may stretch far back into the history of human ancestors, hinting at advanced cognitive skills and a less nomadic lifestyle for some hominids than previously thought.