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<\/p>\nArchaeologists working in Greece have unearthed a pair of wooden tools dating back approximately 430,000 years, making them the oldest handheld implements of their kind ever discovered.<\/p>\n
The remarkable artefacts, recovered from the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece, were fashioned by an as-yet unidentified hominin species that existed long before modern humans walked the earth.<\/p>\n
The discovery was made public in research in the scientific journal PNAS.<\/p>\n
“The objects represent the oldest hand-held wooden tools ever found, pushing back evidence of this type of tool use by at least 40,000 years,” the research team stated.<\/p>\n
The find significantly extends understanding of early tool-making capabilities among humans’ ancient ancestors.<\/p>\n
The larger of the two implements, discovered at the Marathousa site, measures 81 centimetres in length and displays distinctive splintering and fraying at one end.<\/p>\n
These wear patterns strongly suggest it served as a digging stick, with researchers noting its shape and dimensions align with tools used for that purpose.<\/p>\n
The second artefact is considerably smaller at just 5.7 centimetres long and has had its bark entirely removed.<\/p>\n
The find significantly extends understanding of early tool-making capabilities among humans’ ancient ancestors<\/p>\n
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Universitat Tubingen\/PA<\/p>\n
One end shows evidence of rounding and pitting, though its precise function remains a mystery to scientists.<\/p>\n
The research team has speculated it may have been employed in the production of stone tools, though this cannot be confirmed.<\/p>\n
Both items were preserved after becoming buried in waterlogged soil, which created a low-oxygen environment protecting the organic materials from decay.<\/p>\n
The excavation also yielded animal and plant remains that allowed scientists to reconstruct the ancient landscape surrounding the tool-makers.<\/p>\n
A rich lakeshore habitat emerges from the evidence, populated by both land-dwelling and semi-aquatic mammals alongside freshwater molluscs, turtles and birds.<\/p>\n
Among the creatures that once roamed this environment were elephants, hippopotamuses, deer and wild boar.<\/p>\n
Dr Annemieke Milks, an archaeologist at the University of Reading and the study’s lead author, explained that Europe was enduring “an extremely cold glacial period” when these tools were in use.<\/p>\n
However, this particular lakeside location would have offered a comparatively hospitable refuge from the harsh conditions prevailing elsewhere on the continent.<\/p>\n
MORE ARCHAEOLOGY DISCOVERIES:<\/p>\n
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Europe was enduring “an extremely cold glacial period” when these tools were in use<\/p>\n
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G. PRIETO\/K. HARVATI<\/p>\n
The waterlogged conditions at the site proved crucial for preservation, protecting not only the wooden implements but other organic materials as well.<\/p>\n
The tools predate the emergence of Homo sapiens by roughly 130,000 years, leaving researchers uncertain about which species crafted them.<\/p>\n
“There aren’t human remains from [Marathousa] and for this period there is a bit of ambiguity at the moment about hominin species. It could have been Homo heidelbergensis, or possibly very early Neanderthals,” Dr Milks told Live Science.<\/p>\n
Stone and bone implements had previously been identified at the location, meaning the wooden discoveries demonstrate these ancient beings worked with multiple materials.<\/p>\n
Professor Katerina Harvati, a paleoanthropology expert at the University of T\u00fcbingen, noted the tools “provide a rare glimpse into a component of their technology that we know very little about, that which was based on [perishable] plant derived materials rather than stones.”<\/p>\n
The artefacts “highlight the behavioral adaptability and flexibility of the Marathousa hominins,” she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Archaeologists working in Greece have unearthed a pair of wooden tools dating back approximately 430,000 years, making them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[8870,59,90,2331,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-400588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-archaeology","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-sgg","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}