Archaeologists have discovered the oldest known wooden structure in Zambia in southern Africa, and it is almost half a million years old, reported CNN.
Although discovered in 2019 upstream of Kalambo Falls near Zambia’s border with Tanzania, a recent examination of cut marks created by stone tools indicates that the modest piece was possibly a platform constructed out of two interlocking logs, with a notch carefully fashioned into the upper piece to allow them to fit together at right angles.
Professor Geoff Duller, a member of the team that discovered the finding along the river bank, believes the wooden platform may have been used as a walkway, to keep food or firewood dry, or perhaps even as a foundation for a dwelling. A digging stick and other wooden implements were discovered at the same location.
“That the wood has remained in place and intact for half a million years is extraordinary. And it gives us this real insight, this window into this time period,” said Duller.
The wooden structure has no real parallel in the archaeological record. Before the announcement of the Zambia find, the oldest known wooden structure was just 9,000 years old. The oldest known wooden artifact, however, is a fragment of polished plank discovered in Israel, dated at 780,000 years old. The oldest wooden implements for foraging and hunting ever discovered date back roughly 400,000 years. Around 175,000 years ago, Neanderthals are believed to have built buildings out of bones or stalactites.
Because organic material rots and disintegrates quickly, wood artifacts are rarely preserved in the archaeological record, especially at such an ancient location. Duller noted that high water levels and fine silt encasing the building structure at Kalambo had aided in preserving the wood.
According to Duller, the finding calls into question the widely held belief that Stone Age people lived nomadic lives. Kalambo Falls would have offered a consistent source of water, and the surrounding forest would have provided abundant food, perhaps even allowing for a more stable sedentary existence.