Researchers have found a structure that may be the oldest evidence yet of early humans building with wood. The structure is simple: two logs, fitted together with a notch. It is half a million years old. It provides a rare look at how ancient human relatives were working with wood and changing their environments, researchers wrote in a study published recently in Nature. Larry Barham of the University of Liverpool in Britain was one of the writers of the study. Barham said, “It took me a while before I appreciated what we were looking at.” He added about the structure, “It didn’t look very nice, to be honest. But it is much more complex than I thought.” Barham and his team dug up the log structure, and several wooden tools, from a riverbed area that sits above a waterfall in the African country of Zambia. They think the crossed logs could have been the base for a bigger structure like a walkway or a platform. Barham explained that wood usually rots quickly due to the weather. As a result, little evidence remains of how our ancient relatives used the material. But the log structure that researchers found had been below the river’s surface, which helped save them. So when Barham’s team found the logs in 2019, they were still able to see signs that early humans had shaped them.
