Analysis showed that wooden elements were worked by hand at least 476,000 years ago. Since our own species is older than Homo sapiens, our ancestors were engaged in construction.

What is known

Numerous stone tool marks were found on two wooden logs. Ancient people shaped and combined them to form a structure (possibly part of a dwelling).

This is the oldest evidence in the world that logs were deliberately produced and assembled. Until now, evidence of human use of wood in that period has been limited to fire-making, the use of digging sticks and spears.

People were building structures from wood half a million years ago / Photo: University of Liverpool

Wood is rarely found at such ancient sites as they are often poorly preserved, but at Kalambo Falls the wood was preserved due to high groundwater levels. Kalambo waterfall is located on the border of Zambia and Tanzania, not far from Lake Tanganyika.

This discovery challenges the widely held belief that Stone Age people were always nomadic. Near Kalambo Falls, people had a constant source of water and the surrounding forest provided sufficient food.

Excavations / Photography University of Liverpool

This discovery changed my mind about our earliest ancestors. Forget the “stone age” label: these people made something big out of wood. Even if it is a platform where you can sit by the river and do your work, they have transformed the environment to make life easier.
– says project manager Professor Larry Barham.

Luminescence methods were used for dating, indicating when the minerals in the sand surrounding the finds were last exposed to sunlight.