Abstract

Direct evidence of Palaeolithic wood working rarely survives in the archaeological record, especially in the tropics. The Early Stone Age African site of Kalambo Falls, Zambia offers a rare and exceptional context for the preservation of wood. Excavations in 2019 recovered wood tools and other plant remains from waterlogged deposits, along with stone tools (Acheulean, Sangoan). Each of three phases of occupation preserves wood tools with the sequence dated by luminescence (post-IR IRSL ).

The earliest deposits (476,000 ka ± 23 ka) have received the most attention, and deservedly so, for the preservation of the earliest evidence of the structural use of wood. Other lesser-known finds to be described include a digging stick (390,000 ka ±25 ka) and a log extracted from a tree trunk and used as a work surface (324,000 ka ±15 ka). Analyses are ongoing and adding new information on the extent of the shaping of the structure in its construction.

The fact that there was a wooden structure, alongside a conceptually new approach to technology – the combining of parts to make a functioning whole ̶ show what we regard as a surprising level of folk engineering before the evolution of Homo sapiens. But the artisans at Kalambo Falls lived in a woodland landscape and had the stone tools and skills to create a built environment. Their achievements remind us of the inherent limitations of our, to date, largely lithics based knowledge of technological change.

Barham, L., Duller, G.A.T., Candy, I. et al. Evidence for the earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years ago. Nature 622, 107–111 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06557-9

Barham, L., Kleindienst, M. 2023. Kalambo Falls, Zambia. In: Beyin, A., Wright, D.K., Wilkins, J., Olszewski, D.I. (eds) Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa, Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20290-2_76

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