Archaeologists have made a remarkable discovery, two wooden tools which were dated back around 430,000 years ago in the Megalopolis Basin of Greece. This find is extraordinary because wood rarely survives for such a long period, making these artifacts some of the oldest known wooden tools ever found.
The tools are believed to have been crafted by early humans. One tool looks to have been used for digging, possibly to extract roots, while the other seems designed for shaping or working with stones. This suggests that early humans were not only using stone tools but also experimenting with other materials, with scientists guessing it was to enhance their daily survival tasks. Katerina Harvati, a professor at Germany’s University of Tübingen and a study co-author, communicated with Live Science via email. Her comments suggest that the study’s findings come to certain conclusions “tools provide a rare glimpse into a component of their technology that we know very little about, that which was based on [perishable] plant derived materials rather than stones.”
The fact that these tools are preserved shows that researchers now don’t just have to rely on stone artifacts staying preserved. During a phone interview with NBC News, lead author Annemieke Milks noted, “What’s particularly exciting about finds like this is that we just so rarely have wood preserved for that long.”
This discovery nourishes our understanding of human evolution, showing that early humans were innovative and resourceful much earlier than previously thought. It also emphasizes the importance of continuing archaeological research to uncover more about our distant ancestors and the tools they used to thrive in their environments.
