Ancient wood discovery rewrites our understanding of early humans and could uplift local communities

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have led an international interdisciplinary team whose discovery has attracted global interest in academia and beyond

A chance discovery of ancient wood in Zambia has reshuffled our understanding of early human capabilities and has the potential to uplift the communities in the area, said guests of the THE Connect podcast, produced in partnership with the University of Liverpool.

“The impact has been overwhelming,” said Larry Barham, a professor in the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool and leader of the Deep Roots of Humanity project. “It made me realise that I had assumptions about what early humans could and couldn’t do.”

In September, Barham and a multidisciplinary team announced the discovery of 476,000-year-old wooden tools and logs that had once been part of a structure in exposed sediment at the Kalambo River in Zambia. The two interlocking logs bore distinctive notches that allowed them to fit together. But at that time, Homo sapiens did not yet exist. It would be another 200,000 years before our species started appearing. The team’s findings were published in the scientific journal Nature.

“If you make extraordinary claims, you better have extraordinary supporting evidence"
Larry Barham, professor in the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, the University of Liverpool

“If you make extraordinary claims, you better have extraordinary supporting evidence,” said Barham. This is why, although they discovered the wood in 2019, the international team only announced their findings this year.

The scientists used a variety of techniques, often inspired by other disciplines, to determine that the wood had been worked on by ancient non-Homo sapiens people, said Nicola George, research technical professional at the Professor Elizabeth Slater Archaeological Research Laboratories at the University of Liverpool. “As an archaeologist, you need to think outside the box when trying to answer research questions and so we will pull from any discipline, which takes a lot of research and reading about the potential application of techniques.”

George believes there are significant advantages to sharing the University of Liverpool’s technical expertise with smaller institutions associated with archaeological sites, which may not have the resources to investigate their own finds. “Cultural heritage is important, and it’s important for local people to see what fascinating things are going on in their area. Archaeology is able to connect people to how amazing humans really are,” she said.

“Cultural heritage is important, and it’s important for local people to see what fascinating things are going on in their area"
Nicola George, research technical professional at the Professor Elizabeth Slater Archaeological Research Laboratories, the University of Liverpool

The project drew on expertise from several disciplines, said Barham. These included photographers to build the three-dimensional models while keeping the wood underwater so it would not dry out and decay, dating specialists and even experimental archaeologists who were able to make stone tools such as those that would have been used on the logs.

The team also drew on local expertise, said Perrice Nkombwe, director of the Moto Moto Museum in Zambia. Nkombwe provided the ethnographic data to interpret the tools. “The project has helped a number of Zambian researchers,” she said. Such collaborations “provide mentorship for our museum staff”. “There’s so much that we still need to do as museums, but we lack the resources. When such collaboration opportunities come about, we benefit from learning with researchers as well as enhancing our own interpretation of museum collections.”

There is hope this latest discovery will put the Kalambo site on the conservation map. “For a long time, the Zambian heritage authority has been trying to have the Kalambo Falls site listed as a World Heritage Site. This discovery enhances the justification,” Nkombwe said.

Such a move would preserve the site for future generations and enable more research, but it would also boost tourist numbers and support local communities, the guests said.

"There’s so much that we still need to do as museums, but we lack the resources. When such collaboration opportunities come about, we benefit from learning with researchers as well as enhancing our own interpretation of museum collections.”
Perrice Nkombwe, director, the Moto Moto Museum, Zambia

Listen to the podcast episode