​In Zambia, a discovery was made that delighted archaeologists: the oldest wooden structure created by man dates back to 476,000 years ago, and the big question is what it was used for. It was thought that archaic people only used wood for simple things, but now a discovery may change the way we think about it.

Basically, archaic people nearly half a million years ago cut and carved tree trunks to make complex wooden structures at that time. This discovery was made on the banks of a river in Zambia called Kalambo, and concerns tree trunks located at right angles.

It can be seen that they were made by man using the simple tools of the time and were placed according to size. It is not known what this structure was used for, but it can be assumed that it was some kind of platform.

We cannot find out what it was because only a small part of the structure has survived. In places with high humidity, people build platforms on the banks of rivers, but it is not known whether this is also the case here.

The discovery could change current views that archaic humans lived simple, nomadic lives.

“They made something new and big out of wood,” archaeologist Larry Barham told the BBC. “They used their intelligence, imagination and skill to create something they had never seen before, something that had never existed before them.”

Very old wooden structures are extremely rare, because organic material decomposes over several thousand years, so they cannot withstand wooden structures. In the case of Zambia, the wood was preserved due to the very special conditions in which the material was stored, in a place with constant humidity.

The discovery was made in 2019 near the second highest waterfall in Africa, Kalambo.

The study in the journal Nature is titled Evidence for earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years ago.

Sources: BBC, New York Times, Guardian