Science.-A wooden structure dating back to before our species has been discovered – Publimetro México

Madrid, 20 years (European Press)

Research published in the journal Nature reports on the excavation of well-preserved wood at the archaeological site of Kalambo Falls (Zambia), which dates back at least 476,000 years and predates the evolution of our species. .

Expert analysis of stone tool cut marks on the wood shows that these early humans shaped and joined two large pieces of wood to build a structure, perhaps the foundation of a platform or part of a dwelling.

This is the world’s first evidence of tree trunks being deliberately made to fit together. Until now, evidence of human use of wood has been limited to making fires, carving sticks, and making spears.

Wood is rarely found at such ancient sites because it often rots and disappears, but at Kalambo Falls, permanently high water levels have preserved the wood.

This discovery challenges the prevailing view that Stone Age humans were nomadic. At Kalambo Falls, these humans not only had a constant source of water, but the surrounding forest provided them with enough food to settle and build structures.

Professor Larry Parham, from the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, who is leading the Deep Roots of Humanity research project, said: “This discovery has changed the way I think about our early ancestors.” . Forget the “stone age” label and look at what these people were doing: they were making something new and great out of wood. They used their intelligence, imagination and skills to create something they had never seen before, something that had never been seen before. It didn’t exist before,” he highlights.

He adds that they “changed their environment to make life easier, if only by making a platform for them to sit on next to the river to do their daily tasks. These people were more like us than we thought,” he emphasizes. .

Specialist dating of the finds was carried out by experts from Aberystwyth University using new luminescence dating techniques, which reveal the last time minerals in the sand surrounding the finds were exposed to sunlight, to determine their age.

Professor Geoff Dowler, from Aberystwyth University, said: “In this great age, dating finds is extremely difficult and we have used scintillation dating to do this. These new dating methods have far-reaching implications, allowing us to date much earlier in time and reconstruct Sites that allow us to glimpse human evolution.

He added: “The Kalambo Falls site had previously been excavated in the 1960s, where similar pieces of wood were recovered, but they were unable to date them, so until now their true meaning was not clear.”

The Kalambo Falls site is located on the Kalambo River, above a 235-meter-high waterfall, on Zambia’s border with the Rukwa region of Tanzania, on the edge of Lake Tanganyika. The area is listed on UNESCO’s “temporary” list to become a World Heritage Site due to its archaeological importance.

“Our research shows that this site is much older than previously thought, so its archaeological importance is now even greater,” Dowler said. “It adds greater weight to the argument that it should be a UN World Heritage Site.”

This research is part of the pioneering Deep Roots of Humanity project, an investigation into how human technology evolved in the Stone Age. The project is funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, and involved teams from the Zambia National Heritage Conservation Commission, Livingstone Museum, Motu Motu Museum and Lusaka National Museum.

“Kalambu Falls is an exceptional site and an important heritage asset for Zambia. The Deep Roots team is looking forward to even more exciting discoveries emerging from its submerged sands,” says Professor Barham.