Just read that the oldest known wooden structure is over 476,000 years old

I was going through a journal article from the Kalambo Falls site in Zambia, and the detail that really got me was the age of those worked logs. They used a technique called luminescence dating on the sediment around the wood, since the wood itself was too old for carbon dating. The structure, which looks like a simple platform or part of a dwelling, shows clear cut marks from stone tools. It pushes back the timeline for complex woodworking by early humans, or maybe even Homo heidelbergensis, by hundreds of thousands of years. I always pictured early humans as just using caves or simple shelters, but this shows planning and skill with a difficult material way earlier than we thought. It makes you wonder what else is out there that just hasn't been preserved. Has anyone else come across a find that completely shifted your idea of a 'timeline' for human technology?

4 comments

4 Comments

alexf991mo ago

Guess my IKEA shelf is an antique.

nora_murphy1mo ago

Feel the same about my Billy bookcase. It's older than some of my friendships at this point.

path471mo ago

My 1998 IKEA Jerker desk is still my main work table. The particleboard has some chips and the finish is worn off where my arms rest. That thing has survived four moves and a flooded basement. If it still does its job after 26 years, it's not an antique, it's just well-made for the price.

david_palmer5d ago

Call it vintage instead, that's the sweet spot between new and antique.