A STONE Age stick wielded by humans 430,000 years ago may be the oldest wooden tool ever discovered.
Two time-travelling artefacts were uncovered, rewriting history to push back this kind of tool by “at least 40,000 years”.
They were uncovered at an important Stone Age archaeological site in what is now Greece.
The pair of tools would’ve been used by early humans during the Middle Pleistocene, which ran from 774,000 to 129,000 years ago.
But these specific tools – which were found on what was once the shore of a lake – date back 430,000 years.
“The Middle Pleistocene was a critical phase in human evolution, during which more complex behaviors developed.
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“The earliest reliable evidence of the targeted technological use of plants also dates from this period,” said Professor Katerina Harvati, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Tübingen.
It’s not the first time tools have been found at the site.
Archaeologists have previously collected “worked stones and bone artefacts”.
They say this highlights the “skill and diverse activities” of the people who once lived there.
But finding wooden tools is a more rare occurrence.
“Unlike stones, wooden objects need special conditions to survive over long periods of time,” says Dr Annemieke Milks, a leading expert in early wooden tools at the University of Reading.
“We examined all the wooden remains closely, looking at their surfaces under microscopes.
“We found marks from chopping and carving on two objects – clear signs that early humans had shaped them.”
Two wooden artefacts were determined to have been worked by humans.
The first was a small piece of an alder trunk, which experts say shows clear signs of having been shaped.
On top of that, it had signs of wear and tear – indicating use by a long-lost human.
Experts believe that the stick would probably have been used for digging at the edge of a lake.
Alternatively, it may have been used for removing tree bark.
A second tool was a very small piece of wood that would have come from a willow or poplar tree.
This also shows signs of working and possible signs of use.
There was a third piece of alder trunk that had a groove pattern.
But experts say that this way clawed by a large carnivore – “possibly a bear” – and wasn’t shaped by humans.
“The oldest wooden tools come from places such as the United Kingdom, Zambia, Germany, and China and include weapons, digging sticks, and tool handles,” Milks said.
“However, they are all more recent than our finds from Marathousa 1.
“There is only one older piece of evidence of wood used by humans, from the Kalambo Falls site in Zambia, dating to around 476,000 years ago.
“Yet that wood was used not as a tool but as structural material.”
The site, which is called Marathousa 1, was discovered back in 2013.
It’s located in the Megalopolis basin in Arcadia, Peloponnese in Southern Greece.
The site is notable for having several stone tools, as well as the remains of an elephant and other animals.
That suggests that the location was used for “butchering animals”.
And the discovery of the wooden tools shows that the people who lived there were a capable and relatively advanced people.
“We have discovered the oldest wooden tools known to date, as well as the first evidence of this kind from southeastern Europe,” Harvati said.
“This shows once again how exceptionally good the conditions at the Marathousa 1 site are for preservation.
“And the fact that large carnivores left their mark near the butchered elephant alongside human activity indicates fierce competition between the two.”
This research was published in the journal PNAS, and was funded by the European Research Council and the German Science Foundation.
