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Researchers have discovered wooden hand-held tools at an archaeological site in Greece that are approximately 430,000 years old, making them the oldest wooden tools ever found. The tools were preserved at an ancient lakeside location and show evidence of deliberate carving and shaping. This finding demonstrates that early humans possessed advanced craftsmanship and technical abilities much earlier in prehistory than previously documented.
Why it matters
This discovery fundamentally changes our understanding of early human cognitive development and technological capabilities during the Middle Pleistocene period. It suggests that wooden tools, which rarely survive in the archaeological record, may have played a much more significant role in human evolution than stone tools alone indicate.
Scientists have uncovered the oldest known hand-held wooden tools ever used by humans — and they’re an astonishing 430,000 years old. Buried for hundreds of thousands of years at an ancient lakeside site in Greece, the carefully carved wooden objects reveal that early humans were far more skilled and resourceful than once believed.
Source: Scientists discover the oldest wooden tools ever used by humans