NEW YORK (AP) – A pair of artifacts unearthed on a Greek lakeshore represent the most ancient wooden implements discovered to date, with an estimated age of 430,000 years.
One of these objects is a slender branch, approximately 2.5 feet (80 centimeters) in length, which may have served the purpose of excavating soft earth.
Scholars posit that early hominids employed a diverse array of implements fashioned from stone, bone, and wood. However, substantial challenges exist in locating tangible evidence of wooden tools in contemporary archaeological contexts, primarily due to their rapid decomposition. Such artifacts are infrequently preserved except under specific environmental conditions, such as those found in ice, subterranean caverns, or submerged locales.
The recently discovered tools, recovered from Greece’s Megalopolis basin, were likely rapidly entombed by sedimentary deposits, facilitating their preservation within a consistently moist environment over millennia. For an extended period, investigators have been uncovering other vestiges at this site, including lithic implements and elephantine remains bearing discernible incised marks.
Although direct radiometric dating of the wooden artifacts was not performed, the geological age of the stratum in which they were found, estimated at approximately 430,000 years, provides a reliable temporal framework for their age.
“The profound privilege of being able to physically interact with these historical objects has consistently been a source of immense fascination for me,” remarked Annemieke Milks of the University of Reading, a principal author of the study.
As no hominin skeletal remains have yet been identified at the location, the precise identity of the tool’s users remains undetermined. It is conceivable that the implements were utilized by Neanderthals, nascent human progenitors, or perhaps another distinct hominin group.
The archaeological locale in Greece likely harbors additional significant discoveries from antiquity awaiting exhumation, according to archaeologist Jarod Hutson of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Nevertheless, the unexceptional outward appearance of these two newly found implements renders their functional interpretation more challenging.
“It is difficult to elicit significant excitement regarding these items as they do not immediately present themselves as discernibly wooden tools, and their precise applications remain unknown,” stated Hutson, who was not a participant in the current research initiative.
Precedent examples of ancient wooden implements include a collection of meticulously crafted spears recovered from German excavations and 300,000-year-old digging sticks unearthed in China, which might have been instrumental in the harvesting of plant resources.
This recent discovery furnishes a rare insight into the multifaceted repertoire of survival implements utilized by our ancestors, offering a glimpse into a “lesser-understood facet of early human technological capabilities,” as conveyed in an email correspondence by study co-author Katerina Harvati of the University of Tübingen.
