The Tool Desk
Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Long before farming, hominins shaped wood for hunting, gathering plants, and practical construction. Finds include spears, digging sticks, hook-shaped tools, and two logs joined with a cut notch. These objects show that wood was a versatile raw material—but because it usually decays, the surviving evidence is rare and incomplete. Some examples come from hominins who lived hundreds of thousands of years before modern humans.
Why are ancient wooden tools so rare?
Wood decays far more readily than stone, so an archaeological site must have unusual conditions for wooden objects to survive. Waterlogged, oxygen-poor, icy, or otherwise exceptional deposits can preserve organic remains that would disappear in ordinary conditions. As a result, the wooden objects archaeologists find are a geographically selective sample, not a reliable count of how often people used wood.
That preservation bias matters when interpreting the record: the relative abundance of surviving stone tools does not mean people relied on stone for every task. Larry Barham and colleagues noted in their 2023 Nature study that wooden artifacts rarely survive from the Early Stone Age and that this limits what is known about when and how hominins used wood.
How did people use wood to hunt?
Spears at Schöningen
Wooden spears from Schöningen in Germany are among the clearest evidence of wood used in hunting. A 2024 review of the site’s “Spear Horizon” discusses these weapons alongside wider possible hunting, gathering, and domestic roles for wooden tools. The preserved spears establish that people made hunting equipment from wood; they do not, by themselves, tell us every detail of how a particular weapon was used.
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Comparisons with tools used by more recent peoples can suggest possible functions, but analogy is not direct proof that a Pleistocene object had the same use. The Schöningen review also stresses that wood and other organic materials survive less readily than stone and bone, skewing the archaeological record.
How did people use wood to gather food?
Digging and cutting at Gantangqing
At Gantangqing in Yunnan, China, a University of Wollongong report on research published in Science describes 35 wooden tools dated to between 250,000 and 350,000 years ago. The assemblage includes two large digging sticks and four hook-shaped objects that may have been used to cut roots. Polishing, scraping, and soil residue support the interpretation that some tools were used for digging, but the hook-shaped items’ proposed cutting function remains an interpretation rather than a directly observed action.
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The report also describes plant evidence at the site, including pine nuts, hazelnuts, kiwi fruit, and aquatic tubers. This is evidence about food found at Gantangqing; it should not be taken as a universal menu for ancient people or as proof that every wooden tool was used to gather those foods.
Possible digging or bark removal at Marathousa 1
A University of Reading report on a 2026 PNAS study describes two human-worked wooden objects from Marathousa 1 in Greece, around 430,000 years old. One is a stick that may have been used for digging or removing bark. The researchers identify the second small object as worked, but its function is unknown. A separate grooved piece from the site was attributed to a large carnivore, not human shaping—an important reminder that marks on wood do not automatically show toolmaking.
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Digging sticks at Poggetti Vecchi
At Poggetti Vecchi in Italy, a 2018 PNAS study reports wooden implements interpreted as digging sticks. The researchers also report evidence of fire technology in making tools from tough wood. The find connects woodworking with fire, although the interpretation should be kept to the evidence reported at this site rather than generalized to every prehistoric wooden implement.
Was wood used for construction as well as tools?
The notched logs at Kalambo Falls
At Kalambo Falls in Zambia, waterlogged deposits preserved two logs joined by an intentionally cut notch. Barham and colleagues’ 2023 Nature study dates the deposits containing this construction to at least 476 ± 23 thousand years ago, using luminescence dating. The joined logs are evidence of structural use of wood, not a handheld tool. Their precise purpose is not established by the preserved join alone.
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What do the finds prove—and what remains uncertain?
The strongest conclusions begin with what is physically preserved: shaped wood, cut marks, polish, residues, or a deliberately joined structure. Archaeologists then use those observations and the surrounding context to propose functions. Some interpretations are better supported than others: residue and wear at Gantangqing support digging, while the Marathousa 1 stick’s possible uses remain probable and its companion object’s function is unknown.
- Well supported: Hominins shaped and used wood for hunting equipment, plant-gathering implements, and structural purposes long before farming.
- Supported at particular sites: Wear and soil traces at Gantangqing point to digging; the Kalambo Falls logs show a notched wooden join.
- Unresolved: The exact function of some objects, how common wooden tools were, and how much of the original technology has vanished through decay.
These examples span different places, dates, and hominin populations; they should not be collapsed into a single universal toolkit. They do establish that wood was part of early technology even though the archaeological record preserves only fragments of its use.
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