This rare discovery in Greece was made 430,000 years ago, hinting at the beginnings of wood technology.
A digging stick and a small tool whose usefulness is unknown are among the the oldest portable wooden tools never found. The artifacts, dating back to 430,000 years ago, indicate that early human ancestors used wood to make tools, weapons and perhaps shelter.
Our team was “so lucky, incredibly lucky” to have found objects like this, says Paleolithic archaeologist Annemieke Milks of the University of Reading in England. The wood usually rots quickly, she said, but it was preserved at an ancient site on what is now the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece. That’s because the ground was heavily waterlogged when the objects were made and because they were buried so deeply — about 100 feet deep, Milks and colleagues report Jan. 26 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
These objects are among thousands of pieces of wood, bone and stone recovered from a lignite (lignite) mine in Marathousa, near the center of the peninsula. The site was an ancient lakeshore when the tools were made, but has since dried up. The discovery is one of many in recent years that has given scientists a better understanding of our ancestors’ use of wooden tools over hundreds of thousands of years.
Milks and his colleagues show that the stick, found in four pieces, was worked to remove the branches and create a handle. The tool is 81 centimeters (or about two and a half feet) long. Analysis of wear indicates it was used for digging, while geomagnetic and other analyzes confirmed the dating. Milks believes the staff was made from a thin alder trunk, but it was crushed so badly it’s hard to tell.
The second wooden tool is more mysterious. Measuring less than three inches long and made from willow, it was clearly shaped for some reason, but its purpose is unknown. It may have been used with some of the ancient stone or bone tools found at the site, to “finish” work on another object, Milks says.
