Overview
- Researchers led by Annemieke Milks and Katerina Harvati report in PNAS two human‑modified wooden artifacts from the Marathousa 1 site on the Peloponnese dated to roughly 430,000 years.
- The items include an entrinded alder shaft about 81–85 centimeters long with wear consistent with a digging stick and a small roughly 5–6 centimeter willow or poplar piece of uncertain function.
- Both artifacts were found alongside thousands of stone flakes and the processed remains of a straight‑tusked elephant, pointing to multi‑material technology at a lakeshore butchery location.
- Exceptional preservation due to rapid burial in fine, wet sediments enabled survival of the wood, yet only 2 of 144 analyzed fragments show clear human workmanship.
- The authors describe these as the oldest known wooden tools and the first of their kind from Southeast Europe, while noting that the maker species is unknown and broader inferences remain tentative.