Archaeologists discover 476,000 year old structure, thought to be oldest known wooden structure ...

[@KeithRingo]

Even 500,000 years ago apprentices were forgetting to load all the tools into the van. Fascinating.

[@LibertarianGalt]

I bet they got sent out for tartan paint as well

[@SuperBANDIT68]

🤣🤣🤣

[@ausgepicht]

@@LibertarianGalt The "left-handed" screwdriver was our hazing go-to for noobs. lol I still remember the eagerness they would all have and then the confused looks on their faces as they were rifling through tools. When they'd turn around and look over, we'd all burst out laughing. Not a tool, but when I worked at a scallop plant, we'd send noobs to get the "scallop soap" for scallops that were dirty. Once the salespeople in the other side of the building found out, they joined in and printed out a fancy label to put on dish detergent. So, we would send them the sales department to get the scallop soap. Hahaha! They'd come back and we'd give them a toothbrush and have the noob cleaned 4-5 scallops with it. I remember actually craughing. That is, laughing and crying at the same time. Good times, good times.

[@myview1875]

@@ausgepicht You forgot the " Long Stand ". Go see Mike and get the Long Stand. 🤣🤣😂😂.

[@quidproquo3933]

those prehistoric board stretchers though

[@MrNobody-bv4ec]

I'm a firm believer that we've heavily under-estimated past cultures and ancient peoples due to having no written records and so little survived to show us how far they had come, so history has always assumed that past a certain point humans were just dumb and could only do elementary work, yet as more and more comes to light we are beginning to realize how much we've underestimated ancient people.

[@zemog1025]

these tools may have not been made by "people"

[@jomiguides]

I believe the catastrophes within the Bible account for the loss of knowledge and mass extinctions. Look what's happening to the greatest country on earth. Evil has a way of pervading throughout it's container.

[@TruthSurge]

"we've heavily under-estimated past cultures and ancient peoples due to having no written records and so little survived to show us how far they had come," Cuz we've dug up SO many intricate technological marvels like.... bricks.... and stone buildings... and clay pots...... and jewelry and spears and swords.... I'm still waiting on a star gate to emerge from the fossil evidence!

[@coastrider9673]

Understatement. What we don't know dwarfs what we do know by an unknowable magnitude.

[@eatdabutt]

I believe the most significant remnants of ancient civilizations will eventually be discovered in the ocean.

[@StupidDanimations]

The oldest found stone tools are dated from 3.3 million years ago. It is likely that early ancestors to humans used these to create useful things out of plant material such as structures, wood tools, rope, baskets, clothing, etc. Unfortunately, it takes a very rare set of conditions in a special environment for these organic artifacts to survive beyond a few hundred years. What a wonderful find this is!

[@BringDHouseDown]

and cataclysms wiping the records doesn't help us either

[@ThriftyCHNR]

so you mean primates way way before humans?

[@wannaxwannerx]

@@ThriftyCHNRyep they pre date humanity

[@michaelpacnw2419]

@@BringDHouseDown I think it is much more likely these were actual modern human created artifacts than some proto-human half ape. Science now believes humans are 300k yrs old, no reason that can't be 500k yrs. (or older) That is plenty of time for several civilizations to rise and fall.

[@cleverja]

oh my

[@OhAwe]

It's inconceivable these bits of wood are recognised as a structure. If anyone who isn't a high level archaeologist were to have found it, it's just fire wood or nothing. Suggests there's a huge amount more that's gone unrecognised.

[@sincereflowers3218]

Notice how they had someone who knows how to work wood with stone carving things? They were probably comparing that to what they believe to be notch and carving marks found when studying the wood pieces.

[@motoman869]

Yes, look up Ron Wyatt noahs ark. Probably pinned on the map. Theres a lot less speculation about how old it is. Mehhh, alittle bit more outright denial!

[@OhAwe]

@@motoman869 I will look it up. Some of the oldest and hardest to recognise identified wooden artefacts are boats, interestingly.

[@OhAwe]

@@motoman869 The main issue is the material. How would a wooden ship turn in to Iron ore? It's pretty inconceivable on a chemical level. So it's not obvious why anyone would think it's the Ark, except the shape is sort of slightly boat-like at particular angles.

[@motoman869]

@@OhAwe one would have to be looking for it i suppose. First place to look is the area that has an account of it. "IN THE MOUNTAINS OF ARARAT". Its there no matter what conclusions are made about it. The location, the size and dimensions, metal rivets, peices taken out of it, tourist center to see, digital archives, google earth satellite, all the while it was under a glacier until the 60s and uncovered due to "global warming". The shape you see is the top half and has been impaled on a rock. The reason it hasn't rotted away fully is that it has been fossilized by volcanic sediment. There was a volcano there thats gone now but the lava pushed the ark down the valley leaving the bottom further up the hill. Gopher wood =laminated wood. Think from every angle you can find on it. Why would someone make it up? Why is there 70+ cultures that essentially have the same flood story? Why would someone go to all the trouble to build something that massive? For example the one in kentucky. K now fossilize it and seal it for thousands of years till the digital age. Ask if you have ever been lied to. What if the asteroid that killed the Dinosaurs caused a great flood. 2. Someone was told by a somebody and had foreknowledge of an event that was coming and prepared accordingly. Why are there fossils of sea creatures in the tops of mountains. Are the geneologies correct? This is a case where written history corresponds with archeology. Its like a treasure map. Ask yourself "is this all there is to it?" Just a rock in the hills. K atlantis the richat structure in eye of the sahara. Was under what. Under water. The ancient maps show the location . I could go on but what am i after? The TRUTH. Ask God in genuine spirit and he will reveal to you.

[@johnsebaton2526]

This type of discovery makes me wonder how many times humanity has advanced, then some cataclysmic event happens, and hits the reset button. Truly remarkable discovery.

[@NobodyNeedstoknow-bq5px]

I would say that finding a crude wood structure made from crude stone tools indicates that they didn't advance all that far.

[@SusanBloodgood-o5s]

Yeah, if there was a calamity today the survivors would likely be People who build bunkers ( rich Folks along with some scientists, Military and some hunter gatherers possibly in New Guinea or deep in the Amazon or Africa

[@ginkhoba]

@@SusanBloodgood-o5s in general I agree, except the surviving hunter/gatherers would most likely be in the mountain caves, and all those in their bunkers, depending on geographic location, might have drowned.

[@sqnhunter]

@@NobodyNeedstoknow-bq5px They still right there today!!

[@somerandomname3124]

Advanced is a rough word. I don't think we ever got beyond bronze age technology until recently every time socieites did or did not collapse. We know bottlenecks exist for certain, we don't know exactly why, some theories more logical than others. Stonemasonry and carving was advanced but without a writing system there was no way to advance technologically, or without the agricultural revolution forcing humans to begin production and labor on larger scales.

[@victoryfirst2878]

This is just unbelievable. I tip my hat to whoever was lucky enough to find this items.This is a labor of love.

[@roveriia6334]

sorry to burst your bubble I do not mean to be negative just truthful and honest. Scientifically this is hype. Not that it may be what they are proposing but at this point it is a grainy picture of big foot. It is found wood that appears to be worn and has scratch marks and a human tools was found nearby. The tools are great! It is like explaining to a psychic that I felt strange one night (The wood is found) and then I said my father died sometime prior (The Tool is found) and the psychic concludes it must have been the spirit of my dead father that made me feel strange... now give me your money in the form of academic grants. This is done everyday many times over and over. Hope you are happy and well today and in the future.

[@rymic72]

A labour for funding

[@ReformedBrant]

Unbelievable is right

[@stephanieyee9784]

This is a remarkable discovery and the fact these pieces of wood have survived so well is a miracle. It is also more proof that our ancient ancestors or cousins were not ignorant brutes. They were far more intelligent than previously thought. They were amazingly talented tool makers.

[@walkinaxyl]

🤣😶‍🌫️😅🥱🤮

[@kevinmelton7954]

Oh yes, VERY remarkable the wood survived near 1/2 million years. 😂

[@ossiedunstan4419]

It it not a miracle it is ludicrous and clearly a scam.

[@WillyEckaslike]

this is nonsense dressed up to "prove" how "clever" these people were...same people that never got around to inventing the wheel

[@HeleneWheatfield0549]

Not so 'clearly' and please outline how the scam was perpetrated. University departments just are not in the habit of resorting to scams. If they did, they wouldn't last very long, i.e. elaborate documentation and verification, plus peer reviews, soon sort out any wheat from chaff.@@ossiedunstan4419

[@brandonwiles-n8t]

You just found an unfinished DIY log raft project from 5 million years ago.

[@silviac221]

Exactly what I thought

[@blackietotheend]

Belonged to a car guy, he will get to finished it one day.

[@Grace3355]

No 5 million, 500 thousand 😁

[@devijankowicz9491]

Unfinished? Must have got the kit from IKEA.

[@Rosskles]

500,000. Not 5,000,000. Big difference.

[@satohime]

i'm an amateur sumerologist (ancient mesopotamia stuff) and feel like it's important to emphasise just how *insane* 500,000 years ago is- sometimes i fall into a stupor when i try to fathom the vastness of time that makes up what we call "ancient sumer", the amount of generations that made up all those centuries, but that's only about 2,000 years that gets my head spinning... we aren't even capable of grasping the magnitude of five *hundred thousand* years of human development, with no lasting record to tell us what really could have happened

[@Byronic19134]

I’m tracking I was just trying to explain to somebody the vast difference in time between what we were told were the first cities in ancient Sumer around 4,500 BC and Gobelki Tepe which is confirmed atleast 12,000 BC and possibly as far back as 30,000BC. And then you realize theoretically human life could have began as early as 500 million years ago. 500 million! The vastness of time is awe inspiring.

[@Helios601]

Now think 30.000.000 + which was first root race

[@PuppetMasterdaath144]

its obvious that there are beings inside the earth that dont die from all the things surface dwellers die from

[@PuppetMasterdaath144]

and I just realized that I have to explain that it means the inner earth people do not reset...

[@Padraigp]

Not really considering humans had tools 3 million years ago. They weren't making tools for no reason .

[@steg_of_neth.2877]

It's a fish trap. It was attached to a reed basket type structure. Rope is tied to the lower pole which fits in the notch. When fish/ marine reptiles enter the trap, you pull the rope to spring the trap, encasing the trapped prey inside the reed basket. They still use them in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia or they did in the 1950's anyway.

[@me5atworld]

Bubz?!

[@stefanthorpenberg887]

Seems definitely to be a valid idea. I guessed it perhaps was a bridge. If they had canoes of some kind it was difficult to walk in the mud. To build a platform/bridge made it easier to reach dry land.

[@mushedits]

Keep in mind that same river might not have even been there that long ago.

[@sqnhunter]

I think it was just wood on a fire made out to be a two wood structure by great imaginations.

[@StalkedByLosers]

​@@sqnhunter valid criticism. In that spirit, how would you explain the scratch marks that seem to form the notch?

[@mackthenight]

What's more amazing is that river hasn't changed course in 476,000 years.

[@andriesquast2028]

Actually, it is extremely unlikely.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

@@andriesquast2028 the waterfall hasn't moved and so the river that is right at the waterfalls hasn't moved.

[@LUXINTERIOR-t6i]

TO HELL WITHTHE REDCOAT PLUNDERERS !!

[@DonFatherTrump]

Indeed. 🤔

[@savage22bolt32]

My parents gave me a Lincoln Log set in 1958.

[@ErgoCogita]

While being an amazingly fortuitous find, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.

[@midoribushi5331]

Why can't it be cool? Who cares if it's a surprise, blah blah.

[@ErgoCogita]

@ I’m not sure who your directing your comment at. I can only guess that your selective comprehension doesn’t register “an amazingly fortuitous find” being synonymous with the colloquial usage of “cool”.

[@Katherine-zi6mw]

I lived here 50 years ago. Have walked up river from Lake Tanganyika to the falls. And spent much time at the falls with the villagers that lived there. A very early Leaky dig near-by. Archeology here is breath taking! A real sense of time and place. Also interesting modern history in the Gorge from WW ll. Your find is not surprising!!!

[@Naturalook]

How local are the stones/rocks being used to make tools? Is there any info on how far away materials were sourced from?

[@Uruz2012]

They mentioned using stone from the site for the experimenral archaeology they did. Most likely the people worked right where they lived, making the tools on site.

[@Damngoodcoffee_n_cherrypie]

Mind blowing that a structure of this sophistication existed 500,000 years ago. I am also struck by the social use of such a wooden platform - as a bridge, as a dry space to socialise and congregate. Really shows how civilised humans were even back then.

[@blauskie]

It was a deck for their hot tub.

[@forestdweller5581]

Social use? You are tripping buddy 😛

[@valetta202]

Or as a dock, to tie up their canoes, or to fish...

[@earlysda]

It's even more mind-blowing to know the fact that Jesus Christ spoke this world into existence in 6 days, then rested the 7th.

[@Robespierre-lI]

​@@earlysda lol. Sure. On a video about a major archeological discovery from the lower paleolithic era, you express your belief in mythology from late antiquity while confusing it with another ancient myth that was written down in the iron age. That's so cute. It's childlike in it's naivety. It's almost like you don't realize how incompatible these three ideas are.

[@MidwestLori77]

Thank you for sharing this. I've been sharing this video with my 9yr old son. I hope my kids can retain my sense of wonder over earth and everything that has come before us.

[@ronv6637]

What are you going to for when some "teacher" tries to fail him or tell him he's stupid when he informs them they're wrong?

[@pinchebruha405]

M’y dad infected us despite my moms efforts to make us think he was wasting our time. She was an immigrant we were not. She brought her cultural expectations of just take any job and send money back for the family with her. She realized this later and apologized because she know realizes she did not support us in our American Dreams.

[@Ricardofromage]

As a joiner, carpenter and cabinet maker, this sings to my bones, amazing work guys

[@daneenmurf1043]

Wow You might use electric tools but essentially your trade was handed down from these guys !

[@MrMjolnir69]

"The Bone Singer. " There's the title for your autobiography/diary of a Builder man. You're welcome. I got a million of 'em.

[@fuhgeddaboutit7848]

As a tinker, tailor, and candlestick maker, this has me chuffed.

[@stant7122]

Beavers make shapes out of trees kind of like that

[@Robespierre-lI]

Yes. This is very cool. In retrospect, I suppose I should have realized that joinery would have been invented early on. If you are an early human making tools, you would first find an object to be used as a tool. Then, you might try to shape that object to be a better tool. Then, you might get around to combining together multiple objects to create even better tools. And since wood is generally a readily available material that is softer than stone ... Next, you've got the use of stone to carve wood; and then join two pieces of wood together. Seems logical, now that I put my mind to it. I always assumed that woodworking was a fairly advanced art. But now I realize that I was just biased by how few wood artefacts survive in the archeological record. When I try to think of early surviving examples of woodworking, my mind goes straight to the bronze age - Egypt. But those examples were already quite complex (Tutankhamen's throne for example)

[@thelonewrangler1008]

Its unfortunate that wood decays so easily because not using stone doesn't mean humans weren't building all kinds of structures for millions of years

[@mindfortress105]

even stone would decay in that much time. Look at our buildings form 2000 years ago, even 1000 years ago, most of them are rubble

[@theshamanarchist5441]

@@mindfortress105 not really. The Giza pyramids where actually constructed between 17,000 - 22,000 years ago and would look just as new now as the day they were constructed had it not been for acts of extreme vandalism by Muslim Arabs using gunpowder 7 and a half centuries ago.....

[@Le_Comte_de_Monte_Felin]

And folks think their cassette tapes will be around for future archaeologists to use for future research.... What? Your cassettes are getting brittle and useless after less than two decades of neglect? Well golly! Imagine that! Sure hope those future generations can fix that for ya...

[@dud3655]

​@@mindfortress105 To be honest, stone doesn't decay that fast. Depends mostly on the type really, its the mortar that gives out, all those boulders used to build castles are still there, the mortar holding the wall together is what's gone.

[@JohnAvillaHerpetocultural]

Nothing survives on these timeframes. If we got hit by a large Taurid object or nuke ourselves back to the Stone Age our civilization would be almost entirely erased from the planet in 500k years.

[@fibonaccisrazor]

Quite possibly this could be part of a structure of a wooden bridge. As reference for the design: the Mathematical Bridge next to Queens' College, Cambridge; a sophisticated rigid and self-supporting structure composed of tangent and radial trussing, optically an arch bridge, but comprising completely straight timbers in an arrangement where the tangent members are almost completely under compression and the radial members under tension. The MB originally used iron wedges for the joinery, but after its first of two rebuilds these were replaced by nuts and bolts. Presumably this nearly half a million year-old structure had no metal parts, but a rigid structure could nevertheless be achieved by carving notches into the timbers and binding adjacent parts together with natural rope-like material. Interestingly the ratio of the lengths of the discovered timbers resembles very much that of the tangent and radial members of the Mathematical Bridge in Cambridge. A conjecture, but food for thought.

[@ximono]

I think it's plausible that it was part of a bridge or a pier, being just downriver from a waterfall that I assume was there ~476,000 years ago.

[@nino-gs5yt]

Was also thinking it could have been from a wooden bridge over the river.

[@mandalorianmama]

How did your team determine the age of the pieces?

[@eeeaten]

linked in the description

[@therealzilch]

Brilliant. As a luthier, I also make many of my own tools, though not of stone. I too can see the obvious toolmarks- we still make them today. I salute the skills of our ancestors, or the cousins of our ancestors, and congratulations Unversity of Liverpool for this great video.

[@WVa007]

😂

[@Cognitoman]

You build guitars ?

[@therealzilch]

@@Cognitoman No guitars so far. Mostly medieval and earlier instruments- lyres, psalteries, kitheras, harps.

[@gordslater]

just like Ian Gillan did, this guy ^ really gets into Da Luth

[@fkapps]

One of my favorite bits of trivia is that Lincoln logs were invented by the son of Frank Lloyd Wright. They were inspired by the anti-earthquake building techniques FLW used on the Japanese Imperial Palace, which in turn were inspired by long-standing Japanese building techniques. So the lincoln log notches you reference are a traditional japanese building style that likely goes back hundreds if not thousands of years.

[@judeirwin2222]

I was a child in 1950s America, and these Lincoln Logs were one of my favorite creative toys or tools.

[@markuse3472]

Your "likely" comes from wishful thinking, nothing to do with probability.

[@rachelnyn5543]

@@markuse3472 explain it to us, oh great one!

[@ximono]

Looks a lot like the log houses of Scandinavian and Baltic countries too. I'm writing this comment from inside one that's probably from the 18th century.

[@rachelnyn5543]

@@ximono wow! That is so interesting! Enjoy and have a wonderful day! 🤍🤍🤍

[@chrisc765]

weve probably been finding stuff like this for years but just need the experts like yourselves to figure out what it is. This is SO intteresting! keep up the great work

[@ruthlewis6678]

I was thinking the same thing. I would bet just learning how to identify what one is looking at would be an entire study on its own.

[@hulkgqnissanpatrol6121]

Apparently if you can replicate it, it must be man made. 😂

[@jblack8679]

I found a petrified wood toothpick once.

[@hanikaram3351]

i found one still stuck between the molars@@jblack8679

[@illbeyourmonster5752]

@@hulkgqnissanpatrol6121 Just because you can imitate raw ignorance, doesn't mean you have to. 🙄

[@Romalvx]

I am an archeologist and I think that this discovery opens to an amazing possibility of other theories. Thank you for your good work, wishing you outstanding other discoveries!

[@peterlandbo2726]

And I am The Last King of Scotland

[@160p2GHz]

This is amazing. I love learning about early human life and advancements. I would be curious to learn in future videos more about the context: what species of tree was it and what was the environment like that long ago and what other sorts of things do you find (you showed a bit of this) and what is known about humans or intelligent species that may have built such things at that time. Congrats on the find and keep up the truly amazing work.

[@forestdweller5581]

So? You can just look those things up yourself.......

[@anim8torfiddler871]

For a river to continue flowing in the same rivercourse for HALF a MILLION YEARS is an extraordinary concept. So many things can change: Continents tear apart and separate, Ice Ages come and go; Watersheds with all the thousands of rills, brooks, and streams Feeding the river can turn to DESERTS of blowing Sand. It truly is miraculous for a river to have continued flowing within identically the same banks for that long. Might be reasonable for a river's meandering to bring it back to a general course repeatedly, though, as long as the watershed persists. Maybe the area with the preserved "worked" wood had been covered by ice at different times. Think I'll shut up and listen for a bit.

[@Planet-Anime]

It takes hundreds of millions for noticeable change to happen 500k is basically nothing

[@AlowisciousMahoney]

@@Planet-Animeyes. In the course of only 500,000 years, the river will have meandered back and forth but likely in the same general area, and archaeologists should be able to confirm (and I would anticipate likely have) whether that is the case at this location.

[@kleanish]

@@Planet-Animeyou can see changes in meandering rivers over a couple years. the earth moves sediment fast, and rock slowly

[@smolboyi]

I'd like to see more on their dating methods 🧐

[@MyN0N4M3]

@@Planet-Anime Not really though, in 10,000 years the Nile for example has completely changed it's form multiple times and wandered many km in each direction

[@GaiaCarney]

Thank you for sharing this! I found the water preservation details fascinating as well as the stone tool work!

[@miked2674]

Would they have burnt the part of wood first before working / scrapping it ?

[@jeil5676]

Its almost unbelievable that a piece of wood can remain so well preserved for half a million years in what you would think is a volatile sort of climate (not permafrost).

[@bobriquardo5317]

They find a lot of stuff in wetlands actually because the clay helps preserve stuff. Some of our best discoveries come from swamps and wetlands.

[@TheJagjr4450]

the mineralization(fossilization) is what protected or helped keep it intact, that and first of all it being encased in an anerobic environment.

[@HuplesCat]

Zambia dude

[@NumberSixAtTheVillage]

that's because it's unbelievable

[@christopherellis2663]

Anaerobic silt.

[@sandramorey2529]

I heard about this a few days ago on BBC but seeing is better. Thanks.

[@mossylog]

I would be very interested to hear how researchers ruled out other possibilities of how two pieces of wood could have ended up looking like this. To my mind, identifying specifically why other explanations are not possible is the most important piece of information and I think it is lacking here. Amazing find!

[@NobodyNeedstoknow-bq5px]

That would be the whole "experimental archeology" thing he mentioned. They found what manner of tools would leave the marks on the wood by examining the marks left by various types, which indicated stone tools.

[@mossylog]

@@NobodyNeedstoknow-bq5px I agree that they confirmed that the use of certain tools could create those marks. I am interested in how they ruled out other possibilities. I imagine a LOT of things could happen to a piece of wood in half a million years. What makes these marks clearly and undeniably different from marks that could occur from contact with any other object over that period of time, natural degradation, or manipulation by other animals? I am not doubting these scientists, I am simply curious about HOW they ruled out other scenarios. What reasoning did they use? A stone tool is a very simple object - there are literally billions of stones all over the place, especially tumbling around in rivers. Incredible claims require incredible evidence. I hope more will be shared with the public and I look forward to reading about it!

[@user-hd1qx2bd1r]

I thought exactly the same thing.

[@DIREWOLFx75]

"identifying specifically why other explanations are not possible is the most important piece of information and I think it is lacking here." Uh, he specifically talks about how they've been able to compare the toolmarks from its making with modern experimental testing...

[@mossylog]

@@DIREWOLFx75 Yes, but I think about it this way: if I show you a mark on a piece of wood and ask you to create a mark just like it, then it’s pretty likely you could find some tool that would make a close enough match. In the video, they demonstrate that one person did find a way to recreate the marks (that they are intentionally trying to recreate while looking at the model for reference) with a stone from the river. The only thing that proves is that humans COULD have done it with a stone from the river. It does not prove that they actually DID it. I’d love to hear from the scientists how other possibilities were refuted.

[@martineastburn3679]

Is it a chuck (curved piece that holds wood/leather/...) and a drill that wears or cuts a hole to have cleaned strips of Gut to sew it together ?

[@Lwah0812]

I would like to see detailed videos of people doing stuff like they did in ancient time, finding food..grains etc and hunting, cooking, storage, what they wore and how the did it how they built their shelters…everything they did day to day for the course of a whole year. I am so fascinated by it and in my head I envision so many different things but of course it’s colored by my modern life.

[@Macarite]

There’s a channel for that, it’s called primitive technology

[@Lwah0812]

@@Macarite thank you

[@JohnnyKray]

I'd like to know how they cut their toenails.....seriously

[@captainjj7184]

If that path of river stream is just as old (which I doubt), I'm imagining a sturdy ledge structure to sit on and wash food, tools and apparels, while also being sort of ancient river side toilet like they still have in rural Asia, maybe? Once you have water source, communal tribes just do everything in it from one spot. Where the waterfal is present, perhaps it'd be possible to track down how far the stream had moved for the last 477 thousand years to help in finding more of the missing puzzles?

[@bobriquardo5317]

could be an aquafer nearby which helps maintain the position of bodies of water over long periods of time

[@Man-In-The-Home-Stretch]

I would love to hear some analysis on what this all means in terms of the larger picture of human development. Does it push back generally-agreed timelines? Does it require long-held beliefs to be reexamined? Etc.

[@Find-Your-Bliss-]

Everything we’ve been taught is now in question. Clearly this undermines the concept of early humans being hunter-gatherers.

[@mpetersen6]

Given that gorillas will build crude shelters of branches and leaves I do not doubt that our ancestors were doing similiar things. Once we gained greater dexterity and cognitive skills we started making better tools and eventually we learned to apply those tools to tasks beyond simple bashing.

[@Deploracle]

No and no.

[@casper191985]

@@Deploracleand no😊

[@mauricegold9377]

@@Deploracle Did you mean no? It seems that communicating with these ancestors of ours would be more meaningful than the unreasoning that an entitled know-nothing chooses to write to get attention on a channel well above his/her intelligence-level.

[@jerrycallender9352]

'Lincoln Logs' were among my favorite toys, along with the Erector Set.

[@steveleonard5206]

I grew up Canada and familiar with log cabins. The "notch" is a standard fixture of that basic shelter structure. A simple building process with modern tools. With stone tools, you just need more time.

[@DavidRose-m8s]

The wedge tool gives good credence for this theory, but I will add that when a natural fire sees overlapping wood with contact it sustains a fire for longer, and will naturally produce a notch given the right conditions. Fallen tree provide many cross over points in the position of the canopy, and water can also carry, and pile up wood. Tool marking may carry this one for early human ancestors.

[@OneWildTurkey]

That's been my experience as well. I've come across similar 'structures' when putting out fires, and they also have the striations but I'd always considered they were caused by sand scraping between the pieces as they moved over each other.

[@Tom-tg2jl]

Looks an awful lot like a burned stack of wood to me too, the presence of the tool is interesting but how do we know it wasn’t used to cut down the wood that they stacked up and burned or something idk very interesting but man I really not totally sold.

[@007JHS]

Good points, but i'm guessing that the researchers have looked for evidence of burning through carbonisation.

[@JakeRichardsong]

Right, it was a fire that carved the wood and added all the scrapes and scratches, or maybe a wood nymph or a ghost.

[@OneWildTurkey]

@@JakeRichardsong With a good imagination - anything is 'possible'. Where do you think anthropologists get the ideas for their claims?

[@thestraightroad305]

I am so impressed by the ancient technologies workshop and the water preservation. While in Sirmione, Italy, I saw the remains of an ancient barque that had been found in the water. And I remember the first century fishing boat found in the Sea of Galilee… I love the imagination you and your team have applied to these projects and your conclusions. Thanks for this presentation.

[@shable1436]

Was it a boat, or dock, or raised platform over Marsh swamp? What did the environment look like half a million years ago?

[@swedishancap3672]

the fact people did this 4-500k years ago is absolutely amazing

[@466rudy6]

Even today construction of structures in the area is similar.

[@BeeHash]

You give people time and reasons and they can do cool stuff.

[@ronarprefect7709]

Especially considering the earth could not have existed(and didn't exist), more than 100,000 years ago. Look at the evidence of how the earth's magnetic field strength has decreased with time(more than 40% loss of strength since A.D. 1000). It is impossible that it has been decreasing this way for hundreds of thousands of years. We would already have reached the state of the earth being completely irradiated with cosmic radiation beyond the ability of ANY living thing to exist on it. If you say the magnetic field was just much stronger millions of years ago, such that it could have decreased like it has been shown to for hundreds of thousand or millions of years and be where it is now, the strength it would have to have had to be where it is and have decreased in the way it obvious has(strength can be read in magma flows of known age), then life could not have existed then.

[@catfart879]

That's because it didn't. Scientists don't have a clue on dating items.

[@ShadowLegend300]

@@catfart879 And you do? Do you have something you'd like to share with the rest of us?

[@IndridCool54]

Raft? Bridge? I would like to know the geology and geography of the area half a million years ago. I wonder if the river was there then. Really interesting! 👍🏼👍🏼

[@legendofman12]

Clearly a spaceship

[@-in-the-meantime...]

Yeah the geography was my first thought. No way that lil creek was same spot that long ago.

[@HuplesCat]

and a random without any education dismisses the video. Well done lol @@-in-the-meantime...

[@IndridCool54]

@@legendofman12 anything is possible! 😂

[@bobs5596]

@@-in-the-meantime... how would the log be preserved without being submerged? that's a clue.

[@boshmow3600]

With the articulating joint on top, it resembles a Center Pole. The main structural support for a large tent or canopy.

[@shawndaugherty36]

Could it be part of a bridge structure/platform that was once over the river???

[@chrisjohnston3405]

I would love to take a class from this professor! Just an amazing presentation! I hope this video helps raise money for these type of projects!

[@judeirwin2222]

This type or these types, not these type.

[@chrisjohnston3405]

Oh, goodness! Thank you so very much for correcting my mistake! Perhaps you are unaware, sometimes autocorrect will continue to reshuffle choices even after you make a selection! It’s a problem with the software going back decades to the very beginning! Any rational Boomer or Gen X’er would know this fact, accept it and move on! Unfortunately, Karen’s, such as yourself, go looking for problems to give yourself validation or meaning in your miserable lives! I suggest finding a therapist or a new hobby!

[@vermont741]

Karens. No apostrophe.

[@SmallFry900]

😂@@vermont741

[@SmallFry900]

@@chrisjohnston3405 😂

[@Trampus10-4]

The biggest issue is getting it into the history books. Humanity was thriving on this planet well before the last ice age!

[@Sammysapphira]

If by "thriving" you mean sitting in their own feces and making mud huts sure.

[@antonystringfellow5152]

That depends on what you call humanity. These items certainly weren't produced by our species as our species didn't exist at this time. These were produced by an earlier hominid species. Maybe one of our ancestors, in Africa, where our species first appeared. Still, fascinating and it helps to show how advanced this species was.

[@Trampus10-4]

@@antonystringfellow5152 I can agree with that. Also begs the question, if archeologists find human remains from this time period, from different places across earth. Would they say we are all of the same species? They would possibly find dna links. But bone structure, physical features and so on, vary widely from place to place. Or would they take it as we do and say we are all the same due to the connection to one Human species?

[@andrewm6470]

@@Trampus10-4 I know what you’re asking but everyone alive on earth currently has a much closer common ancestor, 50,000-100,000 years at most but even that is a huge stretch

[@Zuhdj]

Also, fun fact, we are still in that ice age :)

[@judeirwin2222]

Incredibly interesting and so cogently presented. Thank you! I am in Merseyside now and delighted to know about some of the important facilities and people being used to reveal wonders of mankind’s ancient history.

[@nickvivian1233]

could it be part of a bridge structure as the river course would have probably. been quite different then?

[@SandDancing]

Thank you for such a clear explanation of what was found. Voicing the speculations and using Lincoln Logs to demonstrate was a big bonus!

[@mwj5368]

I'm only amateur and probably missed it, but how did you determine this to be 476,000 years old? Thanks for a very interesting documentary and for making available to the world knowledge of our origins.

[@kendigjl]

Trees can be dated using the relationship between the trees rings and/or carbon dating, and sometimes using the depth at which an object is found buried can provide evidence of how old something is.

[@MrToradragon]

@@kendigjl Tree ring comparison works only on more recent wood objects that we have another wood to compare with. E.g. beams from church roof and their rings can be compared to rings in remains of wooden construction found in river.

[@mctrimm7097]

This is a very good question. If you're looking for an answer, whatever you do, do not read recent books about the carbon dating process as you'll end up with more questions than answers.

[@uncledelwindavis4537]

Radiocarbon dating can’t be used because the wood is to old … they used the minerals to determine the age

[@AldousHuxley7]

They always throw numbers out its their best guess. Theyve been wrong countless times.

[@boogersmcgee]

I've seen a few of these before, its a see-saw. From one of the earliest theme parks. If you keep looking you should find the remains of a wooden roller coaster, or the scrambler

[@TheSouthernLady777]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@Growinggolfing]

It looked to be part of a longer structure. It wasn’t a corner post shown in the tank. Looked like a vertical post joining two horizontal beams.

[@karmatraining]

It's incredible to see such ancient things, it makes you wonder about the people who made them and what their societies were like. They weren't quite like modern humans, but they were largely the same as us.

[@LyuboA]

well i bet their society was millions times better then ours today

[@usernamesrlamo]

Depends, if you like short, violence filled lives, full of disease and always being on the brink of starvation, while fighting off other males who want to steal your breeding women and helplessly watching many of your children die, than yes, it was a way better society.

[@twonumber22]

how far back do we go to find the first setup and punchline jokes

[@bigdaddyleroy1915]

they are lying. the earth isn't that old. there ius no way to prove something is that old. he is full of crap

[@twonumber22]

@@bigdaddyleroy1915 Earth is my age, 42.

[@SuperChaoticus]

I would see wood all the time growing up that looked like this, from simple water erosion in streams.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

when you say "looked like this" you mean you haven't read the study. I gave the link and quotes from it in the other comments. thanks

[@SoSickRick]

@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 they're bias in wanting this to be more than old wood was worn down... while also finding a rock thats at every natural water source lol

[@robynmitchell9563]

​@@SoSickRick there's a bias in ignoring the research & experimentation which goes into ruling out natural dynamics as the cause of the marks & shapes. The assumption that these people have not included natural forces as a possibility - is a bias in itself, but because you overestimate your intelligence, you fail to recognize that your accusation is a confession.

[@mssusanmarie]

When something is found that's older than anything like it discovered before, I request that scientists describe it as being the oldest thing of its kind discovered *so far.*

[@christinae30]

That is given, as long as time goes in one direction.

[@mssusanmarie]

@christinae30. It appears that you are unfamiliar with the hubris of some scientists, as well as how words work.

[@peterhammes8321]

How do you contend with the old wood problem?

[@OhAwe]

Use luminescence dating.

[@ibeetellingya5683]

Absolutely amazing. I'm puzzled though by the context. During a half a million years, wouldn't the terrain undergo major changes?

[@Tugela60]

Yes.

[@ibeetellingya5683]

@@Tugela60 so that formation was just "lucky" to survive untouched?

[@Tugela60]

@@ibeetellingya5683 Pretty much. The waterfall has probably wandered all across that cliff face over the last half million years, in fact that cliff face likely was not even there a half million years ago, it has eroded to its current position since then. People don't realize how much waterfalls move due to erosion and a half million years is a long time. Take the Niagra river falls for example, it has moved 11 kilometers upstream in the last 12,000 years. You think that because these things are so big they have been there forever, but that is not true, especially for waterfalls, most of which are eroding back pretty quickly due to the energy involved.

[@sashajames8686]

Pieces of wood from this site were fossilised under layers of clay and mud from where the river had dried up/changed course. The clay compacted them so tightly that they were preserved incredibly well :)

[@eckosters]

Fascinating. Wouldn’t early hominids have used this platform to have a good location to fish? Furthermore I must say I’m disappointed that your Zambian collaborators aren’t named and don’t appear on the credits screen. Will these pieces be returned to Zambia once the research is complete?

[@sbdreamin]

raft

[@kendigjl]

476,000 years ago, the Earth was just the Earth and humans were just humans - so that structure just belongs on Earth with humans. I doubt the concept of a country even existed when the structure was made.

[@horsymandias-ur]

where would you recommend it be returned to in Zambia?

[@telebubba5527]

I fully agree. After it has been preserved it belongs in Zambia. Cultural colonialism should be a thing of the past. I also agree on mentioning the Zambian collaborators. This seems another example of 'white man' exceptionalism all over again and we need to move beyond that.

[@eckosters]

People lived there. Their descendants live their now. It belongs to them

[@WJV9]

The notch and pointed end of the 2 logs made me think of a 'Lever with pivot' mechanism. Perhaps this was part of a lever to raise or lower a water flume or to regulate flow of irrigation water?

[@TropicalCoder]

...or to lift a bucket of water.

[@Herculesbiggercousin]

Using Lincoln logs as an example really sold the idea that it’s a part of some structural frame, the notches shown would fit perfectly for that purpose. Amazing discovery!

[@Gunni1972]

The notch, as you describe it, looks like a tripod connection to me. It is unreasonably thinned out, if it weren't for a second notched log. It also looks like slightly triangular and angled inside the notch. (However, the log next to it IS very thin at one end, and thick at the other). You might want to find an angle, those two pieces could fit together and i am almost certain, it will not be at a 90° angle. A tripod could also mean a lot of things, like a Bridge for example (The longer Log is quite large in diameter, and i don't see a reason why one would build a structure like a Block house, when later civilizations of that region didn't anymore). The first piece you show @ 2:27 is almost certainly charred, (which explains why the parts didn't rot away that easy) the pores are open and wide, gas has escaped.

[@randybugger3006]

You assume that any later civilizations who occupied the same area were culturally descended from this one. I very strongly doubt that this would be the case considering the span of time involved. Also, the blackened appearance of the wood isn't from charring, it's from a process called carbonization that happens when very old wood loses all or most of it's molecular constituents that are more volatile than carbon. The resulting appearance of the wood resembles charring. As the presenter mentioned, the wood is partially fossilized. Carbonization is a precursor state to being fossilized. Whatever this "structure" is, it would have had a practical function, and probably a fairly basic one considering the state of technology 477,000 years ago. If I had to guess, and that's all I can do without more information, I might guess that this is part of a domicile of some kind (I can imagine a "sacred space" kind of building) or I might guess that it's a boat (It was found under a river) or I might guess that it's part of a food processing apparatus. Since it was found alongside tools, it might be a tool itself, used for some task we will never know. The sloped sides of the notch look as though they are made to allow the other piece to pivot inside like an oar in an oarlock, so maybe a water lifting device or some kind of mechanical hammer? It's pretty cool though, whatever it is.

[@casper191985]

@@randybugger3006no you are incorrect sir..

[@flightographist]

I think what you interpret as char is simply the surface layer that forms on wood and other organic debris long buried in anoxic conditions, I have seen this often as a peat researcher.

[@casper191985]

@@flightographist you don’t know

[@judeirwin2222]

“Didn’t rot away that easily”, not “easy”. We use adverbs ending in “ly” to modify any verb.

[@christopherellis2663]

Having visited la musée nationale de préhistoire, just down the road from l'abri Crô-Magnon, I have absolutely no doubt that we were as capable in the distant past as now, if not more so, because the deadwood is no longer trimmed. The essential impulse of human life remains constant.

[@gurglejug627]

if you visited the Tate, just down the road from Cornwall, would you construe that we are all made of modern art pieces?

[@christopherellis2663]

@@gurglejug627 Try the musée de Montmaetre and the grotte de Font de Gaume. Keep your pretentious Tate.

[@gurglejug627]

@@christopherellis2663 dopey f....r you don't get cynical irony do you? You American by any chance?

[@SuperHans700]

Wonder why he didn’t say a it could possibly be a bridge. If the falls were there 400k years ago, there probably was a river. And trees falling across rivers to form a natural bridge seems to me to be an easy source of inspiration to try to replicate by early man

[@jiffytoast]

All dating by scientists is complete nonsense.

[@1974fatback]

@@jiffytoast 9th grade dude…. Go back to the 9th grade.

[@jiffytoast]

@@1974fatback carbon dating lol

[@1974fatback]

@@jiffytoast I bet you think the shroud of Turin is real. If science is jacking up your world view then your world is wrong 😑

[@jiffytoast]

@@1974fatback lol religion

[@travellerstoryteller]

Any bridge to the other side?

[@TheCreep144]

Don’t look now, but here comes the History Channel’s team of producers. In their unbiased scientifically enriched assessment there can be only one explanation. By removing all other possible explanations they will surely reach the conclusion that it can only be aliens that created it, if they haven’t done so already.

[@hook-x6f]

People exploit everything for money. That does not mean that there's no validity. Imagination comes before learning. We create everything through imagining the next move, always. We think about tomorrow in terms of IF. We have to imagine WHAT IF? That's how we plan. That's how we learn. If this then that. All imagination. Einstein is a fine example. He imagined the concept of relativity in his mind. He had to imagine it first. That's all he had was his imagination. He used concepts like the speed of light which have to be imagined in order to be understood. Here let Einstein tell you. Imagination is more important than knowledge, knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. -Albert Einstein

[@RaraAvis1138]

Wow! What a dream job to be an a maker of ancient tools! So cool. Wonderful video ❤

[@Just_Sara]

You might like the channel AncientCraftUK, he does lots of flint knapping.

[@hydeegirl7126]

Good video. Only thing is I have to turn my volume way up to hear your voice. Informational.

[@darinbasile6754]

Amazing find!

[@albertorozco5981]

Looks like a beaver didnt finish his job 😂😂😂

[@mtrest4]

He was sleeping 😴 on the job 🦫

[@miker252]

I'd like to believe it but, maybe they're seeing what they want see. Maybe it's because I grew up by a river and he had Lincoln Logs. I see two pieces of wood rubbing together with abrasive muddy flowing water over eons.

[@kooale]

tool marks

[@upscaleshack]

"I grew up by a river" is literally a qualification to run an archaeology department at the University of Liverpool?

[@Killswitch1411]

@@upscaleshack Look how crazy wood can be shaped in the ocean. So would it not be possible there was a flood that caused the wood to get buried and be shaped like this? Just because they're from archaeology department at the University of Liverpool doesn't mean they're never immune to being wrong about something.

[@JohnnyKray]

I agree

[@sykocase247]

Found 5yrs ago & just now talking about it Now think of how much stuff theyve found/made that they havent released

[@GT-43]

In 2020 researchers discovered dirt that is believed to be 100 years old.

[@Le_Comte_de_Monte_Felin]

... proving once again that ignorance is indeed bliss.

[@davidgraham2673]

Or that people will believe anything: such as a building thar is half a million years old.

[@GeorgeStar]

Stunning to think about 1/2 a million years ago humans had the intelligence to create something so relatively sophisticated, obviously a part of a larger more complex structure. It raises a lot of questions like, did they have language, what else were they creating, were they trading with adjacent tribes, etc?

[@bobbiejoe4726]

no evidence it was part of a structure. they are making a supposition. it may have just been the end of a bench for all we know.

[@swaters5127]

Did they have language? Seriously?

[@mauricegold9377]

If you haven't yet thought this out, consider that these people had to survive daily, not to worry about going to buy food, but to get it from nature without poisoning themselves; to survive the elements, and later on they had to contend with ice-ages where animals and plants died off, and they were obliged to come up with survival techniques. They must have been able to chat to one another and pass on skills through the generations. The opposite is true today: we have language but cannot survive as these people did. How arrogant to think that they were primitive.

[@GeorgeStar]

@@swaters5127 Obviously we have a Trump University expert in our midst. Please share your wisdom on how they could have constructed complex structures without communication.

[@swaters5127]

@@GeorgeStar Clearly they were advanced and clearly advanced groups have language. I have no idea what you're trying to say but I'm assuming you inferred I felt they did not have language. Is that correct? Did you completely misunderstand my sarcasm and proceed to assume I am stupid or ignorant or both?

[@iupetre]

Unless this was rapidly covered up, I have a hard time believing that wood would be preserved for almost 500,000 years especially in the climate of Zambia.

[@watt0455]

Waterlogged

[@MrKoiking1]

I mean, considering they dug it out of sediment at the bottom of a river its fair to say that's exactly what happened.

[@iupetre]

@@MrKoiking1 if you drop something like that wooden tool in a river, it doesn't instantly get covered by layers of mud. It becomes rotten long before that. You'd need to cover it quickly with many layers under pressure to keep out the moisture and fungi that would destroy it in just a few years.

[@JAT985]

IIRC 500k years ago much of Africa was a LOT wetter, including much of the sahara

[@World4Sale]

@@iupetrehave you ever heard of petrified wood? This wood partially fossilised and probably would have fully petrified if it was left to sit for a couple million years more

[@1972Russianwolf]

Did I miss the part where he explains how they dated the site? I see the wood, I see the signs of shaping, but how did they arrive at 477k years?

[@eeeaten]

i don't think it says in the video but i've seen elsewhere that it was dated via luminescence. edit: linked in the description.

[@fromthebeginning6064]

I have petrified dog chit from 1.8 billion years ago...

[@higgsbosonberg4316]

Wun no dogs back en

[@rogue3145]

Y’all found two seemingly random pieces of wood buried in the ground and are calling it the “world’s oldest structure” lmaooooo

[@eeeaten]

Why do science illiterates always say y’all

[@sustainablelife1st]

If we could keep digging, I guarantee evidence of humans goes back millions and millions of years. Cities on top of cities. We think we are so important, but we are just an undectable blip on the radar of enternity.

[@SchoolforHackers]

Amid the Galaxies Like Grains of Sand

[@Find-Your-Bliss-]

I think so, too.

[@larryfulmer]

There is evidence and much more. it's been kept from the majority because it would unhinge current religions and government.. and most likely would collapse our society as we know it today; not that that isn't going to happen anyway under it's own weight of unsustainable..

[@internationalicon]

Is there a reconstruction? A visual speculation about what the structure might have looked like in use?

[@johnrebel9539]

Looks like the remains of a camp fire circa 1995

[@omefea8501]

Yeah. I…. Yeah.

[@johnrebel9539]

​@@omefea8501I just had to re-watch that to figure out wtf I was talking about. I stand by my assessment firmly

[@omefea8501]

@@johnrebel9539 yeah man. I appreciate all their hard work and excitement. All the amazement and human speculation from the mass of commenters. But when they claimed oldest structure ever and produced two pieces of wood from out a river…it may infact be a wooden ufo. Or a flintstone car.

[@johnrebel9539]

@@omefea8501 a wooden ufo 😂 love it!!

[@Deadgye]

I, too, notch and work my wood before I burn it. It's that feeling of knowing I spent all that time and effort for absolutely no reason that makes me do it.

[@MrDaveBurl]

How bout this, that piece of log landed on top of the larger piece in a rapid stream, got wedged in place but was able to rock up and down and sideways by (water) a sandy tidal fluctuation over a long period of time. The serrations made by rock shards passing over the piece in one direction and then another and another over a long period of eb and flow tidal direction change.

[@SoSickRick]

this seems like the most logical thing.

[@rymic72]

That’s actually a much more plausible explanation than what they came up with.

[@GeckoHiker]

I doubt this interpretation of the history of this wood. I look forward to reading the properly credited and substantiated paper that supports this theory.

[@davetree7582]

I think you forgot to mention its size... would be useful so others can think about the object

[@ihuman7253]

This discovery completely rewrites history 😮 it was thought human history began around 200,000 yrs ago so how is this possible. It maddens me that our history books have not been changed hardly since the 1970s to include new discoveries

[@graemero5532]

The homanid footprints found on the beach at Happisburgh in Norfolk, England dated at between 850,000 and 950,000 years old. That discovery was ten years ago now. Human history began way before these two sticks, dubiously described as a structure.

[@Killswitch1411]

This doesn't really prove that its a structure of any kind.

[@asinglemaleinuk]

You confuse “ human “ history with hominid history

[@larryfulmer]

@@asinglemaleinuk There is information available that hominids were derived in genetic manipulations from humans. This is going to be the next shocker besides the society collapse we are facing currently.

[@randybugger3006]

What I think is the most earthshaking thing about this is that it indicates some level of sedentism in these very early humans. Obvious proof that even half a million years back, the conditions (sedentism and the requisite access to adequate food) for complex cultures existed. It brings the human emphasis on social cooperation into sharp relief, even more than intellect.

[@mavigogun]

Absent knowledge, some fantastic supposition. "Science Light- now with half the content of regular Science!"

[@ericericgoodwin8147]

Also beaver mske the same notch then let storms do the rest to take trees down.. and yes they scratch the tree as they chew on it.. then they pile them up and they fit quite nice together... at best youve found an old beaver dam....

[@ryanreedgibson]

Five hundred thousand years ago, people were creating wood structures. No wonder this news wasn't reported in the states. Too many people here prefer mysticism over fact. Great work! I can't wait to learn more.

[@alabasterwilliams5329]

Bruh. This is a youtube channel for a news station in Texas. Theres a link to the story on their news site in the description. Now, I understand the secession movement and all, but Texas is 100% in the united states.

[@furtim1]

@@alabasterwilliams5329 Good point. These folks are everywhere - mocking the US, especially if you are American, is such a great way to show your superiority. To add, I think it is worth pointing out that people 500,000 years ago probably believed is "mysticism" too.

[@sincereflowers3218]

@@furtim1and they were wrong then just like people today. Mysticism and religion are smoke screens.

[@raskreia8326]

@@alabasterwilliams5329 He didn’t mean what you thought he did.

[@andrewsock1608]

It’s just natural. The logs were at the edge of a river and the motion caused them to rub and wear a groove. I’m not confined to a city apartment so I see this on river banks regularly.

[@inharmonywithearth9982]

100% accurate Sir. Agreed its a bunch of malarkey or worse. It's bullsh--t.

[@grimmshades7835]

Don't beavers build dams? ;) And how many samples of both "tools" and "worked materials" are considered before we determine beyond a shadow of a doubt what a thing is? Fascinating discovery, many questions to be answered.

[@louislopinto1645]

Great point my friend but what about the STONE TOOL they found. . .

[@TuorTheBlessedOfUlmo]

Yeah it was those central African beavers who did that

[@Misses-Hippy]

Beavers were bigger back then.@@louislopinto1645

[@upscaleshack]

Beavers have never existed in Zambia.

[@CharlesReedPi]

You should have showed more images of the actual findings

[@bluestormcloud791]

The stone tool is obviously man made. The wood has been abraded by rocks and mud flowing down a river. It is a stretch to determine conclusively that humans were responsible. But hey, these guys are well funded experts who have spent their lives searching for scratched up branches.

[@azfirewiseify]

As advanced as we are, one day our civilization will be as nought. People will excavate and try to piece together what happened to us

[@MsJamieburns]

They will find we destroyed ourselves.

[@richardsheehan6983]

I hope so.

[@DaveCutler-w6m]

What people?

[@azfirewiseify]

@@DaveCutler-w6m Well I’m just speculating someone will survive our stupidity and build again

[@sherrig8708]

Could it be the remains of a raft, left on shore before the falls (as far as they could go)?

[@billhayward1585]

couldn't this piece of wood just have been shaped by the flow of the river and other rocks or sticks rubbing against it. I have often seen logs on the shore shaped by another log trapped on top of it. With the rise and fall of the tide the logs get notched. I hope I'm wrong it would be wonderful to find such an ancient artifact.

[@gerdfehlbaum7059]

Don't spoil the party!

[@billhayward1585]

@@gerdfehlbaum7059 Hi Gerd, thanks for your reply. Ok, it was Trog and his pet beaver Husqvarna 500,000 years ago.

[@gerdfehlbaum7059]

And last Fryday was the hottest day worldwide since 120000 years. @@billhayward1585

[@andyslater2320]

How old are the falls? It could have been a platform for bathing.

[@djtomoy]

Shouldn’t you leave it in Zambia? It’s part of their history not yours.

[@asafoster7954]

Have you met English people hahahaha

[@djtomoy]

@@asafoster7954 yeah, that was kinda my point

[@MetastaticMaladies]

Man, I wish conspiracy theorists would actually study history rather than watching videos and clips and forming their opinions based on little to no context on a foundation of their imagination and fantasy. Everytime I watch a video on early humans or ancient civs I see them everywhere.

[@MR-backup]

Please tell me, how you have any idea that this is 400K years old; cause I'll tell you right now, it's not carbon dating. Also, it's NOT Fossilized liverpool, it's PRETAFIED.

[@iankynaston-richards5239]

You know much, Obi-Wan, but you should go read about optically stimulated luminescence.

[@mikes5637]

I love it when the uneducated try to educate us.😅😂

[@upscaleshack]

Nature volume 622, pages107-111 (2023) read the publication. But if you can't spell petrified I doubt you'll be reading Nature.

[@Killswitch1411]

@@mikes5637 you're never immune from being wrong and we know know those who are educated are wrong a lot. It wouldn't be science if you were always right

[@robynmitchell9563]

​@@Killswitch1411 now we know

[@James-hb8qu]

The problem with archaeology is that a narrative that explains a finding could be describing a reality or it could just be a narrative that explains a finding.

[@hermesmcclintok]

Plus they keep gaslighting everybody by calling everything they find "the oldest"

[@TickleMeTimbers]

it looks like a campfire...

[@rubytuby6369]

I don’t trust any of these estimates on the ages of things anymore…