https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-find-structure-before-homo-sapiens
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earliest-evidence-of-wooden-construction-uncovered/
Archaeologists have discovered two logs that were cut with stone tools almost half a million years ago beside a waterfall in central Africa. The surprising find suggests that early homininsmembers of the human family treewere expert woodworkers long before Homo sapiens evolved.
A few very ancient wooden artifacts have been unearthed before, but they have only hinted at the ability to work with tree trunks. The researchers who made the new find describe it in a study published on Wednesday in Nature. They think these logs were fixed together to form a platform above the marshy shore of the nearby Kalambo River in what is now Zambia.
This is a disruptive discovery, says the studys lead author Larry Barham, an archaeologist at the University of Liverpool in England. I never would have thought that pre-Homo sapiens would have had the capacity to plan something like this.
Barhams team found the two logs in sandy sediments beside a river basin above the Kalambo Falls in 2019. The area is an archaeological treasure trove, with evidence of activity by humans and our early ancestors spanning from the Early Stone Age to nearly modern times. The ends of the two logs had been deliberately shaped to have large notches that could be fitted together like the wooden building toys Lincoln Logs. Barham thinks other logs were laid across them to form a solid platform beside the river basin, perhaps for a fishing platform or a dwelling.
Paleoanthropologist Bruce Hardy of Kenyon College, who also wasnt involved in the log research, has studied Neandertal stringwhich, he says, is evidence that this species was more technologically advanced than initially suspected. He notes that the ancient logs from Kalambo Falls seem exceptional now but only because so little wood and other organic materials from this time have survived. Ninety percent of the material culture of the past is missing, he says. So when we do get the preservation, were rather shocked by what we find.