Media release

From: Springer Nature

Potential earliest evidence of wooden construction 

An ancient wooden structure found at Kalambo Falls, Zambia — dated to about 476,000 years ago — may represent the earliest use of wood in construction, suggests a Nature paper. The findings may extend the age range of woodworking in Africa and expand our understanding of the technical abilities of early hominins to shape tree trunks into large, combined structures.

Wooden artefacts rarely survive from the Early Stone Age as they require exceptional conditions for preservation. Therefore, we have limited information about when and how hominins used this basic raw material or how Pleistocene humans structured their environments.

Lawrence Barham and colleagues report the discovery of ancient wooden structures in a Pleistocene site (dating to around 476,000 years old) at the Kalambo River basin. These included two preserved interlocking logs joined transversely by an intentionally cut notch, and a collection of wooden tools. The upper log had been shaped, and tool marks were found on both logs. The authors suggest that the logs could have been used to construct a raised platform, walkway or foundation for dwellings in the periodically wet floodplain.

The findings may enhance our understanding of the technical capacity of tool-making hominins to construct environments, and the authors suggest that the use of trees in the history of technology should be re-examined. In an accompanying News & Views article, Annemieke Milks suggests that the findings highlight “when people started to structurally alter the planet for their own benefit.”