Archaeologists find oldest wooden tools in Greece believed to be 430,000 years old
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Archaeologists have unearthed what they believe are the oldest wooden tools ever discovered, dating back hundreds of thousands of years, according to a new study.
The tools were found in Greece’s Megalopolis basin, a low valley in the Peloponnese in southern Greece.
The study, published in late January in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, estimated that the tools may be about 430,000 years old, but the exact age is unknown.
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The tools “represent the earliest hand-held wooden tools and include a new type of tool,” according to a summary of the study obtained by Fox News Digital.
The summary also states that the findings “demonstrate the importance of systematically investigating early wooden remains.”
Wooden tools found in Greece’s Megalopolis basin may date back around 430,000 years, potentially being the oldest of their kind, archaeologists say. (Katerina Harvati, Dimitris Michailidis via AP; Prisma/UIG/Getty Images)
The area where the tools were found was covered with wetlands and lakes hundreds of thousands of years ago.
One of them – a stick – is about 2.5 feet long. It was probably used for digging mud, while the other was a small hand-held piece of wood that may have been used to shape stone tools.
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Because the wood rotted very quickly, very few ancient tools of this type have survived.
Recently found tools were covered in sediment and preserved by the surrounding wet environment.
Researchers believe a smaller hand-held piece of wood may have been used to shape stone tools thousands of centuries ago. (Katerina Harvati, Dimitris Michailidis, via AP)
There were no modern humans then; This led scientists to believe that the tools may have been used by Neanderthals or other early human ancestors.
Annemieke Milks, an archaeologist at the University of Reading and author of the study, said she was “very excited to be able to touch these objects.”
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Another archaeologist was cautious about the find.
Archaeologists say the wooden tool, about 2.5 meters long, was probably used for digging in muddy and wet ground. (Katerina Harvati, Dimitris Michailidis, via AP)
Jarod Hutson of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History told The Associated Press that the vehicles’ purposes remain unclear.
“It’s hard to get excited about these because they don’t immediately look like wooden tools,” cautioned Hutson, who was not involved in the research.
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“We don’t know what it was used for,” he added.
This artifact is among other prehistoric finds that have baffled archaeologists in recent months.
Scientists suggest that these tools may have been used by Neanderthals or other early human ancestors before modern humans existed. (Universal Images Group via Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
Last month, archaeologists announced the discovery of cave art dating back about 68,000 years in a cave on a tropical island in central Indonesia.
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Researchers also recently identified the oldest known fossil. poison arrowheads, We estimate they are approximately 60,000 years old.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
