Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Oldest wooden structure found in Zambia

The Oldest Man-Made
Wooden Structure
Found in Zambia
& 
The Ideas of Rick Doble
who predicted the use of right-angle structures
in the Lower Paleolithic
by Rick Doble

NEW DIRECT EVIDENCE MAY CHANGE THE STORY OF PALEOLITHIC TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN EVOLUTION 
This discovery supports the ideas, theories, and predictions of author, Rick Doble, in this eleven-year-old blog DeconstructingTime.

This discovery is:
-- a half-million-year-old wooden structure of carefully made interlocking logs built by early humans before our species, Homo sapiens. Archaeologists think it may have been a platform that was used to keep material dry above the wet ground. It was reported on September 20, 2023 in the journal Nature.

"Structural unit formed by two overlapping logs 
The underlying log passes through a central notch cut into the upper log ...and extends into the section. Plan view of the unit (left) and during excavation (right). The numbers refer to the distance in centimetres."

THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS DISCOVERY
It would be hard to overestimate the importance of this find. 
It is actual wood from the oldest wooden man-made structure that has ever been found.
#1. It is direct evidence of woodwork which has been almost impossible to find due to the fact that wood decays and leaves no trace.
#2. This artifact can be studied for the tools that were used to make it and the way the wood was cut from a specific kind of tree, and then scraped, shaped, and notched.
#3. Much can be inferred about the cognitive abilities of these pre-Homo sapiens because they imagined a design and then engineered a structure.
#4. Using state-of-the-art technology, it was carefully dated by a highly respected team of archaeologists to be at least 476,000 years old meaning that it was made by hominins who preceded our species, Homo sapiens. This means that hominins who came before Homo sapiens were much more intelligent than previously thought and had developed cognitive skills along with woodworking skills.

"Annotated images of the...upper log...showing areas of intentional modification.
From left to right, the location of the central notch in profile, shaping marks in and on the margins of the notch (a–k), the notch in profile from the opposite side. The image on the right shows the upper surface of the log, and the three parts of the log (1–3) separated by cracks. White arrows indicate locations of shaping facets on the sides and upper surface of the log. "


A SUMMARY OF HOW THIS DISCOVERY
SUPPORTS DOBLE'S IDEAS
ABOUT THE PALEOLITHIC ERA

Starting in 2014 I have written articles stating that:
-- Early hominins such as Homo erectus were much smarter than previously thought.
-- A well-developed plant material and fiber technology was probable with these early hominins.
-- They had some early stages of cognitive development.
-- An early sense of linear time was also developing as that allowed them to work with processes that required linear thinking. Processes require a step-by-step way of working from imagination to the final product. A process is itself linear.
--  The importance of right-angle construction by early hominins has been made evident by this discovery of two logs notched together at a right angle. I have written several articles asserting the critical importance of the right angle in early designs and structures.


DOBLE'S IDEAS AND THIS NEW DISCOVERY

This discovery supports and is consistent with my ideas throughout this blog but especially in my article "Terra Amata:...
the Oldest Paleolithic Building Site." that was published in this blog in 2021. 
See my article:
Terra Amata: the Oldest Paleolithic Building Site (December 2021)

The Terra Amata building site was indicated by post holes and is considered to be about 300kya. In my article, I make observations about Terra Amata that would also apply to this new half-million-year-old direct evidence discovery. I said that building a structure would have required advanced cognitive skills to design and plan along with cooperation and coordination among tribal members. The Terra Amata building site showed that pre-Homo sapiens, probably Homo erectus, were much more intelligent than previously thought and probably had also developed an advanced plant material or woven-fiber technology.

Both structures show an understanding of opposing forces. In the case of Terra Amata leaning poles were set against opposite opposing poles to make a hut. In Zambia, the structure showed a log that was carefully made with a notch that was placed at a right angle to another log. 

In my Terra Amata article and others in this blog, I have stressed the importance of the right angle and how it may have been a major discovery among early prehistoric people, an abstract structural principle that early hominins understood. This principle could have been used in basket making and other woven-fiber constructions as well as large structures.

This is a reconstruction of one of the 300,000-year-old Terra Amata huts in the Prehistoric Village of the Gorges du Verdon Museum in Quinson, France. The museum states, "The habitats [in their prehistoric village] have all been reconstructed based on research and observations by archaeologists. They are maintained by the museum's scientific team."

In both cases, the sophisticated use of wood where trees were cut down, trimmed, and shaped suggests that other plant materials such as fibers were probably used as well. I have proposed a theory that a woven-fiber technology or a technology based on basket weaving probably began among early hominins.

ABOUT RIGHT-ANGLE STRUCTURES
I consider the understanding of right-angle construction to be a major breakthrough for designing and creating a host of items. Since the logs were notched and deliberately placed at a right angle this discovery appears to support my idea.

MY ARTICLE
The Invention of Right-Angle Construction in the Paleolithic Era: Including a picture essay that illustrates the capabilities of right-angle woven-fiber technology and basketry
(August 2020)


HOW THIS AFFECTS MY NEW THEORY OF BASKET WEAVING OR WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY IN THE PALEOLITHIC

I have hypothesized that there was a plant-based technology developed by early hominins starting as early as several million years ago. Specifically, I proposed that a rudimentary basket weaving and woven fiber technology would have been possible among early hominins. 

This new discovery makes this idea much more probable. If hominins were making sophisticated wood structures a half million years ago, it is likely that plant technology had its beginnings hundreds of thousands of years before that. 

Virtually all anthropologists believe that early hominins used plant and fiber materials but disagree about the specific way they were used. I have proposed a basket weaving technology based on weaving fibers that could have started among the earliest hominins. And, of course, other uses were possible as well.

MORE ABOUT THIS NEW DISCOVERY

Buried in wet ground, archaeologists found the oldest known wooden structure that is about half a million years old (at least 476,000 years old). It was found near a river on the border of Zambia and Tanzania. Wood normally decays quickly and leaves no trace, but in this case, the logs were waterlogged which preserved them. Two logs were cut, scraped, and shaped and then joined at a right angle with a notched fitting. Because this structure is so old, older than the first evidence of our species, Homo sapiens, it must have been made by an earlier hominin such as Homo erectus. The researchers speculated that it was part of a platform that was used to keep materials dry above the wet environment. The highly respected team of archaeologists used state-of-the-art technology to date this 'platform'. This discovery is direct evidence of intelligence and cognitive skills by early humans. Until now it was assumed that early hominins were not very smart.

“It’s completely changed my view of what people were capable of that time,” said Duller, coauthor of the study, in the article in the journal Nature. 

"They used their intelligence, imagination, and skills to create something they'd never seen before, something that had never previously existed," Larry Barham, the lead researcher and a professor at the University of Liverpool who was quoted in this BBC report.

UNDERSTANDING EARLY HOMININ COGNITIVE THINKING

While it seems simple to us, the steps involved are mind-boggling when considering the invention of this construction by early hominins with smaller brains.

The 'platform' (if it was a platform) was designed to serve a purpose. No one knows the exact purpose but archaeologists guess that it could have been used to keep material dry above the damp ground. While we do not know the exact purpose, it does not matter when thinking about their cognitive skills. Whatever the specific purpose, there was a purpose and this purpose only makes sense if they had a sense of time. They needed to remember the past and how the environment operated over time with a periodically wet floodplain -- so the platform would function within that environment. Next, they needed to imagine a design which would satisfy that purpose. Such imaginative thinking required a sense of future time. Then they needed to plan and make tools for this work. After that, they cut down trees to obtain wood that had the right properties. Finally, they shaped the logs and notched them (like Lincoln Logs as one researcher said) so they would fit at a right angle. Right angle structures are quite strong but they do not exist in nature, so their cognitive skills had grasped a basic structural principle.
“I never would have thought that pre-homo sapiens would have had the capacity to plan something like this,” remarked Professor Barham who was a co-author of the study and who was quoted in this Smithsonian Magazine article.

HOW DOES THIS SUPPORT DOBLE'S IDEAS
ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF TIME COMPREHENSION?

As you know this blog is about the 'Human Understanding Of Time' (HUT). It is my contention that the concept of time as we think of it today developed over millions of years from the immediacy of animal existence to our current concept of linear time today which has a past, present, and future plus duration. In this case, half a million years ago, these early humans appear to have had a sense of linear time when planning a task, otherwise, they could not have designed and built this 'platform'. They understood a need based on past experience, then imagined a design to meet that purpose, gathered the material, and then shaped and constructed it. This was a linear process that required a basic understanding of linear time.

However, having a basic sense of linear time does not mean that they understood time as we think of it today. It means, I think, they understood that a task or a process would require linear thinking.
"Man must have been conscious of memories and purposes long before he made any explicit distinction between past, present, and future."
Whitrow, Gerald. Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day. Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press. 1988, pages 21-22.
MY ARTICLE
The Importance of Processes in the Paleolithic Era
(November 2019)
View or download a PDF on the academic site Academia.edu

AND MORE
One of my main themes has been, that early humans, i.e., hominins, were much smarter than previously thought. I believe they used the technology they had to the nth degree and that they were creative and inventive. 

SEE THE AFTERWORD: MODERN-CENTRIC THINKING
"I would say we need to consider these humans as having the ability to abstract forms from the environment and make them happen, and to pass [that knowledge] on through generations," said Professor Larry Barham. "And that's opened my mind to these pre-sapiens hominins being capable of what we would think of as quite complex behavior."
Quoted in the NPR article.

THE ORIGINAL NATURE ARTICLE
Evidence for the earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years ago. L. Barham, G. A. T. Duller, I. Candy, C. Scott, C. R. Cart wright, J. R. Peterson, C. Kabukcu, M. S. Chapot, F. Melia, V. Rots, N. George, N. Taipale, P. Gethin & P. Nkombwe. Nature, 20 September 2023. 
ONLINE
PDF

A GOOD BRIEF EXPLANATION
World's oldest wooden structure defies Stone Age stereotypes.
Gabriel Spitzer, September 22, 2023.


OVERVIEWS OF RICK DOBLE'S IDEAS

Should "The Stone Age" Be Called "The Stone and Basket Age?"
View or download a PDF on the academic site Academia.edu


Rick Doble's Theory About The Human Understanding of Time (HUT)
View or download a PDF on the academic site Academia.edu

_________________________________________________________

AFTERWORD 


EARLY HOMININS DEVELOPED ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES CONTRARY TO  MODERN-CENTRIC THINKING

This next article of mine makes the argument that Paleolithic people developed a sophisticated woven-fiber technology, an idea that, until now, has not been accepted by anthropologists.

The Development of Advanced Woven-Fiber Technology in the Paleolithic Era: Insights from Paleo-Indian Artifacts and Ethnoarchaeology By Rick Doble  (January 2022)


FROM THE ABOVE ARTICLE
It is my contention that by the Upper Paleolithic, many technologies were quite advanced. In particular, basket weaving or woven-fiber technology had reached a high point of development. There is clay impression evidence of a variety of basket weaving techniques that had been mastered along with other evidence about the manufacture of cordage and the beginnings of textiles. This knowledge and these skills were then passed on to Neolithic cultures who were able to make full use of these technologies in their sedentary and agricultural societies. 

STONE AGE PEOPLE WERE INTELLIGENT AND KNOWLEDGEABLE
Almost ten years ago in 2014, I wrote two detailed blogs about the modern attitude toward ancient people, especially Stone Age people. Here is an excerpt. I listed many more biases so click on the links and read both articles.

The Moderncentric Bias Against Prehistoric Cultures: Part 1
(March 2014)

The Moderncentric Bias Against Old Stone Age Societies: Part 2 (April 2014)

BIAS #1:
OLD STONE AGE PEOPLE WERE BARBARIC SAVAGES
I believe the loaded words 'savage,'  'barbaric,' and 'caveman' are a kind of name-calling with little substance. Stone Age people had a sophisticated knowledge of their world. They studied and understood in-depth a number of things that we modern people are ignorant about.

“Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours.”
Benjamin Franklin
An example of skilled hunter-gatherer and early Neolithic basketry (detail on the right) found in the Cueva de los Murciélagos in southeast Spain (Andalucía, Albuñol). Recently these many baskets and woven items were found to be 2000 years older than previously believed indicating that some were made by European hunter-gatherers. These artifacts showed that hunter-gatherers were capable of well-made basketry accomplished with highly sophisticated woven-fiber technology.



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