476,000 Year Old Wooden Building Found In Africa

A wooden structure that was built by humans nearly half a million years ago has been discovered in Zambia.

The discovery, made by a team of archaeologists from three countries, is significant because it shows early relatives of homo sapiens – hominins – were chopping down trees and using wood to build their structures as far back as 476,000 years ago, according to a report published in this week’s edition of Nature.

“Forget the label ‘Stone Age,’” says Larry Barham, a professor with the University of Liverpool’s Department of Archaeology. “This find has changed how I think about our early ancestors. They used their intelligence, imagination, and skills to create something they’d never seen before, something that had never previously existed.”