Archaeologists say they have discovered the ‘earliest known handheld wooden tools’ at the Middle Pleistocene site of Marathousa 1 in Greece.
An artist’s impression of a Marathousa 1 woman producing a digging stick from a small alder tree trunk with a small stone tool. Image credit: G. Prieto / K. Harvati.
“The Middle Pleistocene was a critical phase in human evolution, during which more complex behaviors developed,” said University of Tübingen’s Professor Katerina Harvati.
“The earliest reliable evidence of the targeted technological use of plants also dates from this period.”
The 430,000-year-old wooden tools found by Professor Harvati and her colleagues at the Marathousa 1 site include a worked alder trunk and a small willow/poplar tool.
Made from alder (Alnus sp.), the first tool bears carving marks with associated stop marks and chopping marks, indicating deliberate shaping.
Approximately 81 cm long, the artifact has use-wear traces consistent with a multifunctional stick likely used in digging at the paleolakeshore.
The second tool, a very small piece of willow/poplar (Salix sp./Populus sp.) measuring 5.7 cm in length, shows evidence of shaping and rounding.
The object exhibits two probable working traces and the removal of annual growth rings from both sides at one end.
Based on these features, the researchers interpret it as a small wood tool, whose function is uncertain, but could have been used in stone tool retouching activities.
These wooden tools were recovered in association with butchered remains of a straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), as well as stone artifacts and worked bone.
“Unlike stones, wooden objects need special conditions to survive over long periods of time,” said Dr. Annemieke Milks, a researcher at the University of Reading.
“We examined all the wooden remains closely, looking at their surfaces under microscopes.”
“We found marks from chopping and carving on two objects — clear signs that early humans had shaped them.”
A digging or multifunctional stick (top) and a small wooden tool (bottom) from the Marathousa 1 site in Greece. Image credit: D. Michailidis / N. Thompson / K. Harvati.
In addition to the tools, the scientists found a large alder trunk fragment bearing deep striations interpreted as fossilized claw marks made by a large carnivorous animal, pointing to possible hominin-carnivore competition at the site.
Cut marks and percussive damage on the elephant remains indicate early access to the carcass by hominins, while gnawing marks attest to subsequent carnivore activity.
“The oldest wooden tools come from places such as the United Kingdom, Zambia, Germany, and China and include weapons, digging sticks, and tool handles,” Dr. Milks said.
“However, they are all more recent than our finds from Marathousa 1.”
“There is only one older piece of evidence of wood used by humans, from the Kalambo Falls site in Zambia, dating to around 476,000 years ago.”
“Yet that wood was used not as a tool but as structural material.”
“We have discovered the oldest wooden tools known to date, as well as the first evidence of this kind from southeastern Europe,” Professor Harvati said.
“This shows once again how exceptionally good the conditions at the Marathousa 1 site are for preservation.”
“And the fact that large carnivores left their mark near the butchered elephant alongside human activity indicates fierce competition between the two.”
The findings were published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Annemieke Milks et al. 2026. Evidence for the earliest hominin use of wooden handheld tools found at Marathousa 1 (Greece). PNAS 123 (6): e2515479123; doi: 10.1073/pnas.25154791
