430,000-Year-Old Wooden Tools Found in Greece

Archaeology Magazine ^ | January 28, 2026 | editors / unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

Science News reports that 430,000-year-old wooden tools likely crafted by Neanderthals or Homo heidelbergensis individuals have been discovered in Greece by a team of researchers led by Annemieke Milks of the University of Reading. The site, which is now a coal mine, is located in the central Peloponnese Peninsula. The rare wooden tools were recovered from waterlogged ground 100 feet beneath the surface, in an area that had been an ancient lakeshore, among thousands of pieces of wood, bone, and stone. One of the artifacts, identified through use-wear analysis as a 2.5-foot-long digging stick, was recovered in four pieces. Milks thinks this tool began as a thin alder trunk that was manipulated in order to remove its branches and fashion a handle. A second object, a piece of shaped willow, measures just three inches long. Milks suggests that this tool may have been used in combination with the stone or bone tools at the site to finish another object. For more recent research on hominins, go to "Around the World: Ethiopia."

[SunkenCiv]

Small wooden tool

Photograph by N. Thompson, © K. Harvati

[SunkenCiv]

[Democrat = party of treason]

LOL!!!

[Az Joe]

I got yer old wooden tool right here

[TigersEye]

I’ve been looking for a good digging stick in the 400k year range.

Wood doesn’t get much harder with additional aging.

[fidelis]

430,000-Year-Old Wooden Tools Found in Greece

If they're Craftsman, do they still have a replacement guarantee on them?

[17th Miss Regt]

do they still have a replacement guarantee on them?

You can't be Sears, can you?

[Dr. Sivana]

How do we know they belonged to humans?

[ArcadeQuarters]

Property of Ugg.

[Sacajaweau]

5 cm = 1.9"

Such a rich imagination...

[Sacajaweau]

How do we even know they’re tools?? And sure as hell, age is a big fat guess.

[Hyman Roth]

Definitely not tools from Harbor Freight.

[carcraft]

Space alien ownership? May by here play survival?

[PGalt]

Scince News: “This ancient stick may be...”

[coolbreeze]

Correction, sticks found in Greece.....film at 11....

[SMARTY]

It’s sort of a broadside to the “Out of Africa” shtick

[Dr. Sivana]

The image I linked stopped appearing. Gary Larson suggests these might be made by cows. Here is another image from Wikipedia. I hope is stays up.

[trebb]

Seems like a stretch - maybe it was a spanking stick....

[Made In The USA]

Somewhere there was a caveman looking for his 10mm socket. Maybe it’s among these relics? Or it rolled under something? Had it just a moment ago. Maybe someone borrowed it?? I mean, the it COULDNT HAVE JUST DISAPPEARED COULD IT?!

[dljordan]

Cro-mags rule.