Scientists discover possible first cabin ever – 09/20/2023 – Science

Nearly half a million years ago, archaic humans living near a large waterfall in the interior of Africa learned to shape logs to fit together. The newly discovered objects may have been the basis for the oldest artificial dwelling made by our lineage – something like the first hut ever –, although other uses are not ruled out.

The discovery, which has just been described in an article in the scientific journal Nature, is surprising because it comes from a time when humans with modern anatomy (or Homo sapiens) hadn’t even appeared yet, as far as we know. Estimated to be 476,000 years old, the wooden artifacts have marks clearly produced by the use of stone artifacts used to grind them.

But it is not clear who the “carpenters” were – the only certainty is that they were already members of the genre Homoalready present in all African regions at that time, and had brains similar in size to ours or to that of Neanderthals, whose lineage was beginning to differentiate at more or less the same time.

The excavations and analyzes were led by scientists from the University of Liverpool, in the United Kingdom, along with colleagues from Portugal, Belgium and Zambia (country of origin of the artifacts). The archaeological site is close to the Kalambo waterfall and Lake Tanganyika, one of the largest in the world.

The abundance of water in the region, in fact, was the key factor in preserving the wooden structures – the logs did not decompose because they were underwater. Artifacts made with this raw material are very rare in very old archaeological sites, which has always left a question in the air: did humanity’s ancestors take a long time to master the art of working with wood (compared to using stone instruments ) or would we just be facing a problem of preserving the material?

The answer likely involves a combination of both factors, but new data from Zambia suggests that this type of technique may be hundreds of thousands of years older than previously thought. The team led by Larry Barham, from the University of Liverpool, realized that the two wooden logs, both measuring approximately one meter, had been altered to produce a more precise fit.

The top piece of wood was excavated, probably with the help of a stone hoe, to leave an inverted U-shaped depression. This made it easier to place this first log on top of the second, forming an almost right angle – as if it were the corner of a tent frame, for example.

“This discovery changed the way I think about our oldest ancestors”, summarized Barham in an official statement from the British institution. “Forget the ‘Stone Age’ label and look at what these people were doing: they built something new and massive from wood. They used their intelligence, imagination and skills to create something they had never seen before, something that had never existed before them.”

In addition to the possibility that the objects formed the foundations of a cabin, the researchers speculate that the logs could have served as “Lego pieces” to build a type of walkway or as a platform on the riverbank. Both things could be useful in a swampy environment – ​​in prehistoric times in several places in Europe, including the United Kingdom itself, wooden structures were used to create small roads in very wet terrain, for example.

“They transformed their surroundings to make their lives easier. These people were more similar to us than we imagined”, highlights Barham.