A 500,000-year headstart on ingenuity

An undated photo provided by Nicholas Thompson shows small 430,000-year-old wooden tools of uncertain function recovered from a site in southern Greece. The finding, along with the discovery of a 500,000-year-old hammer made of bone, indicates that our human ancestors were making tools even earlier than archaeologists thought. (Nicholas Thompson via The New York Times) — NO SALES; FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY WITH NYT STORY SLUGGED SCI ANCIENT TOOLS BY FRANZ LIDZ FOR FEB. 2, 2026. ALL OTHER USE PROHIBITED. —

EARLY hominins in Europe were creating tools from raw materials hundreds of thousands of years before Homo sapiens arrived there, two new studies indicate, pushing back the established time for such activity.

The evidence includes a 500,000-year-old hammer made of elephant or mammoth bone, excavated in southern England, and 430,000-year-old wooden tools found in southern Greece – the earliest wooden tools on record.