Half-Million-Year-Old Wooden Structure Found — and Homo Sapiens Did Not Build It

A discovery can look deceptively simple while forcing archaeologists to reconsider an entire period of human development. The importance lies not only in what survived, but in the planning and technical choices preserved within it.

The evidence reveals a kind of behaviour rarely visible so deep in prehistory. It also raises a difficult question about which early human relative possessed the skill to create it.