A 430,000-year-old wooden stick used by hominins for digging, recovered from a site in southern Greece. The evidence includes a 500,000-year-old hammer made of elephant or mammoth bone, excavated in southern England, and 430,000-year-old wooden tools found in southern Greece – the earliest wooden tools on record. At the site, archaeologists discovered the partial skeleton of a straight-tusked elephant; the remains of turtles, birds, rodents and hippopotamuses, as well as stone tools used for butchering. “I assume it’s not so easy, but I mean, I guess it’s possible.”Small wooden tools of uncertain function, dating back 430,000 years, which were recovered from a site in southern Greece. “Imagine how many tools you can make from a single large bone of an elephant.”2026 The New York Times Company

Source: The Irish Times February 03, 2026 21:16 UTC