QuickCheck: Is the oldest known wooden structure made by non-humans?

THE field of archaeology is rife with buildings and artefacts that are considered to be the oldest. The oldest known stone structure (Göbekli Tepe, Turkiye – built around 9,000 BCE) the oldest known clay pot (found in Xianren cave in Jiangxi, China – around 20,000 years old) and the oldest known paved road (Lake Moeris Quarry Road, Egypt – about 2,500BCE) all have something in common, aside from being really old they were all made by humans.

Saying that, is it true that the oldest wooden structure on record was actually made by someone who was not human?

Verdict:

MOST LIKELY TRUE

The oldest known wooden structure is actually the remains of what archaeologists think is either a wooden platform or walkway found on the river bank of the Kalambo River, right on the border of Zambia and Tanzania.

What’s left of the structure now are two crossed logs, with the top log having a U-shaped notch underneath it to fit on the log below.

Clockwise, from left upper left; chop marks on Part 2; cluster of small convex hewing marks on Part 1, near Part 2; cut mark (upper arrow) and small facets (lower arrows) on Part 1 near Part 3; intercutting chop marks on the upper right edge of the Part 3 taper; underlying log midsection, intersecting cut marks transverse to the grain (bold arrow, upper left, indicating direction of grain). Marks on the underlying tree trunk are interpreted as a result of scraping, perhaps from debarking.

The structure has noticeable tool marks on it left from shaping the wood making it obvious that it is not natural.

The marks show that the logs were cut, chopped and scraped with stone tools, the same tools that were found at the site.

Researchers at the site believed that the structure suggested a high level of ingenuity, technological skill and planning.

This is frankly amazing as luminescence dating of the wood places it at around 476,000 years old, making it over 150,000 years older than the oldest known early modern human remains.

Researchers are unsure of who actually built it, but they are fairly certain that it was not human, but a related hominid.

References:

1. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06557-9

2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228089260_Early_Pottery_at_20000_Years_Ago_in_Xianrendong_Cave_China

3. https://www.asce.org/about-civil-engineering/history-and-heritage/historic-landmarks/lake-moeris-quarry-road

4. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665/