- Oct 17, 2011
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The earliest known hand-held wooden tools, used by our early human ancestors around 430,000 years ago, have been uncovered by researchers at an archeological site in Greece.
One is made from the trunk of an alder tree and could have been used for digging, and the other is a small willow or poplar artifact that may have been used to shape stones, according to a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“What’s particularly exciting about finds like this is that we just so rarely have wood preserved for that long,” the study’s lead author, Annemieke Milks, told NBC News by phone Tuesday.
Direct dating of organic materials, like wood, only goes back to 50,000 years ago, so researchers had to rely on dating sediment and rocks from the site itself. This allowed them to conclude that the tools date back to 430,000 years ago.
It’s likely that the unearthed wooden tools were so well preserved because they were very rapidly buried in sediment that remained wet, and kept away from microorganisms that would eat wood away or rot it, Milks said.
Conditions at the site where the tools were found are “exceptional” and allowed for preservation of delicate organic material, including wood but also seeds and leaves, Katerina Harvati, the study's co-author, said in an email Tuesday.
One is made from the trunk of an alder tree and could have been used for digging, and the other is a small willow or poplar artifact that may have been used to shape stones, according to a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“What’s particularly exciting about finds like this is that we just so rarely have wood preserved for that long,” the study’s lead author, Annemieke Milks, told NBC News by phone Tuesday.
Direct dating of organic materials, like wood, only goes back to 50,000 years ago, so researchers had to rely on dating sediment and rocks from the site itself. This allowed them to conclude that the tools date back to 430,000 years ago.
It’s likely that the unearthed wooden tools were so well preserved because they were very rapidly buried in sediment that remained wet, and kept away from microorganisms that would eat wood away or rot it, Milks said.
Conditions at the site where the tools were found are “exceptional” and allowed for preservation of delicate organic material, including wood but also seeds and leaves, Katerina Harvati, the study's co-author, said in an email Tuesday.
