Early use of wooden tools by hominins

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences—A study* uncovers the earliest evidence of handheld wooden tools used by hominins. During the Middle Pleistocene Epoch, 774,000–129,000 years ago, hominins developed expanded brains alongside technological innovations. Due to the poor preservation of wooden tools, the archaeological record of Pleistocene technology is largely limited to stone tools. Annemieke Milks, Katerina Harvati, and colleagues systematically investigated the morphology of 144 wood remains excavated at Marathousa 1 in the Megalopolis Basin in Greece and identified two wooden artifacts dated to around 430,000 years ago. One artifact was a fragment of a small alder (Alnus sp.) trunk with clear signs of working and use-wear indicating it was likely used as a digging tool. The second artifact, a smaller piece of either willow (Salix sp.) or poplar (Populus sp.), exhibited signs of shaping and potential use-wear, suggesting it was a finger-held tool of uncertain function. Another wood specimen of a large alder trunk exhibited deep claw marks, suggesting the cooccurrence of large carnivores at the site. The wooden tools were found alongside lithic artifacts, worked bone, and butchered remains of straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), and other fauna, demonstrating the variety of technologies used at the site. According to the authors, the findings represent the earliest direct evidence of handheld wooden tools, expanding researchers’ understanding of early hominin technologies.

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430,000-year-old wooden digging stick used by hominins at the lakeshore site of Marathousa 1, Greece.
Credit Katerina Harvati, Dimitris Michailidis (photographer)

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Small 430,000-year-old wooden tool of uncertain function from the lakeshore site of Marathousa 1, Greece.
Credit Katerina Harvati, Nicholas Thompson (photographer)

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Article Source: PNAS news release.