Rare Neolithic Find: Woodworks Using Stone Tools on 5-Foot Logs From 476,000 Years Ago Found in Africa

Neolithic woodworking on 5-foot logs from 476,000 years ago was discovered by scientists. This find, which is unusual in South Africa, was made with stone tools.

Woodworks 60,000 Years Older Than Previous Discoveries

In a paradigm-shifting discovery, preserved timbers demonstrate that Homo sapiens and maybe earlier species were constructing wooden structures 476,000 years ago.

The oldest piece of previously discovered carpentry, according to Wikipedia, is a water well cover made out of oak planks that dates to 5,600 BCE. A carved spear from roughly 416,000 years ago was the oldest wooden tool ever discovered.

These five-foot-long logs showed obvious evidence of stone-tool woodworking, with one end stacked atop the other at a straight angle. They resemble Lincoln Logs a little bit since the ends have notches carved into them to enable them to fit into one another.

Rare Neolithic Find

Nothing of the type has ever been discovered from this time period, and the Neolithic period rarely yields such discoveries.

The excavations on a riverbank close to Kalambo Falls in Zambia, a country in southern Africa, were directed by Professor Larry Barham of the University of Liverpool, and he stated they altered his perspective on the first human predecessors.

Barham said that they used wood to create a brand-new, substantial object. They created something that had never been before by applying their knowledge, creativity, and technical know-how.

Although it's improbable that it was a hut or a cabin, the researchers think it might have been a platform that held other buildings on top of it or, given its proximity to the river, a type of jetty from which to fish.

Although old wooden digging sticks were discovered throughout the excavations, no hominid bones have been uncovered. It's possible that we haven't found Homo sapiens or that a different species of the same genus was sophisticated enough to employ stone tools to conduct simple carpentry techniques before Homo sapiens fossils started to surface around 315,000 years ago.

Several hominid species were present during that period in southern Africa, including Homo erectus and Homo naledi, according to Geoff Duller, a University of Aberystwyth professor of geography and co-author of the study.

Neolithic Period in Africa

Southern Africa is the only region on the continent without a Neolithic era. The concept of having a Neolithic period was abandoned in South Africa in the 1920s when the term evolved to mean Stone Age with food production due to a lack of evidence for farming or herding at Stone Age sites.

However, numerous sheep bones have been found in these locations ever since the late 1960s. The ongoing lack of Neolithic elements may perhaps reveal more about the ideologies guiding South African archaeology than it may about that continent's antiquity. A 2003 essay explains food production during the late Stone Age in southern Africa and makes a case for reintroducing the word Neolithic to the region.