It includes two pieces of wood that are decorated with stones so that they fit together. It is possible that the pieces of wood once formed a kind of platform or passage to stay above the water.
Archaeologists found the structure in northern Zambia, on the border with Tanzania. They also found tools such as a wooden wedge and a digging stick.
Researchers from Aberystwyth University estimate that the structure is at least 476,000 years old. Until now, there has been no evidence that people were building things at that time. It was a long time before our ancestors evolved into Homo sapiens, which did not appear until 300,000 years ago at the earliest.
“Forget the ‘Stone Age’ label – people were building something new and great with wood back then,” says researcher Larry Parham of the University of Liverpool. “They used their intelligence, imagination and skills to create something they had never seen before and that had never existed before.”
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