Modified logs dating to about 476,000 years ago might be the oldest evidence of wooden structures, a new study finds.
Wooden artifacts decompose easily and are relatively scant in the archaeological record compared with stone or bone. The new finding, reported September 20 in Nature, suggests that the structural use of wood may stretch far back into the history of human ancestors, hinting at advanced cognitive skills and a less nomadic lifestyle for some hominids than previously thought.
In the sands that are nearly half a million years old, the team found two large interlocking logs, with shaped ends and wide, carved notches at the point they overlap. Like an early version of Lincoln Logs, this would have held the wood together. Both logs showed evidence of chopping and scraping, and were buried near tools used for scraping or carving, hand axes and other crafting equipment.
These logs may have been part of a structure — a raised walkway, a place to store wood or somewhere to sit — that helped early hominids in their environment, the researchers suggest. Based on timing and location, the structure could be the handiwork of Homo heidelbergensis, a human ancestor that lived about 700,000 to 200,000 years ago.
