Archaeologists discover something in Africa that changes EVERYTHING we know about humanity's past; understand

Archaeologists have located extraordinary evidence of what the use of wood 476 thousand years ago. They discovered preserved wood with carvings that suggest our ancestors used the material for structural purposes.

“They used their intelligence, imagination and skills to create something they had never seen before, something that had never existed,” explained archaeologist Larry Barham from the University of Liverpool.

The ancient artifacts were discovered in a river in Zambia and the archaeological study was published in scientific magazine Nature, in September 2023. In this research, the fact that most surprised scientists was the state of preservation of the trunks.

Wood rarely remains preserved over time. However, the material found in Zambia was in a location favorable to preservation.

(Image: Geoff Duller/Reproduction)

The trunks were found on the border between the

Zambia and Tanzania, on the banks of a river above the Kalambo waterfall. In place, the woods were flooded and preserved for millennia.

For this reason, the analysis confirmed that ancient human life was already thinking about ways to combine wood into more sophisticated structures for the time.

The researchers found “two interconnected trunks joined transversely by an intentionally cut notch.”

“I was amazed to discover that woodworking was such a deeply rooted tradition,” said Perrice Nkombwe of the Livingstone Museum in Zambia.

The team's astonishment is justified by the fact that, until this discovery, archaeological data indicated that the interaction human interaction with wood at the time of the study was limited to the production of fire and the creation of tools, such as spears, says the BBC.

(Image: Larry Barham/Reproduction)

Artifacts were identified using luminescence technique

To determine the age of the items, scientists selected sixteen samples and performed luminescence dating that observes the natural radioactivity present in the rock's grains.

Thus, it was revealed that the wooden trunks are around 476 thousand years old, as already mentioned, making it an unprecedented find.

Afterwards, they carried out carpentry experiments, ethnographic studies and other analyzes to identify how such woods were used by ancient people.

For the research team, it is still difficult to determine the complete structure of the wood found, however, it is known that the carvings were made with stone objects.

“It could be a structure for sitting on the river bank and fishing,” suggested archaeologist Geoff Duller of Aberystwyth University.

In any case, the trunks located are artifacts older than the Homo sapiens, which are approximately 315 thousand years old. Ultimately, the study objects were taken and stored in the United Kingdom, but will soon return to Zambia for an exhibition.