For decades, our image of early humans has been shaped by what they left behind. Usually, this meant sharp stone blades, crude axes, and piles of animal bones. This led to a view of our ancestors as heavily focused on meat — munching on mammoth and steak. But what if that picture is missing half the story, simply because it rotted away?
A stunning discovery in southern China is reshaping that story. At a lakeside site called Gantangqing, archaeologists have uncovered 300,000-year-old wooden tools — intact. These are not only the oldest man-made tools ever found in Asia, but they reveal a side of ancient life that’s been all but invisible: early humans who thrived by harvesting plants.
Wood and Plants
Wood usually decomposes relatively quickly. Microbes, oxidation, and weathering all take a toll, and unlike stone or bones, wood rarely survives over a thousand years; let alone 300,000 years. However, Gantangqing has a very special environment: oxygen-free clay on the shores of the ancient lake. This is exactly the type of environment that can preserve wood from degradation.
Having a site like this is amazing, says Annemieke Milks, an archaeologist at the University of Reading who was not part of the new study. The tools “are a window into the sophistication of technology in the organic realm we don’t really see.”
In just a few square meters, archaeologists unearthed dozens of carefully crafted wooden implements. Some are shaped like chisels or hooks. Others have rounded tips or polished blades. Many bear tiny marks — scrapes, grooves, even bits of soil. These tools are so detailed and specialized that archaeologists are confident that they were used to harvest plants. Some sticks were shaped by hand to harvest tubers, roots, water chestnuts, and the edible parts of aquatic plants. Alongside them, researchers found ancient hazelnuts, pine nuts, and even wild grapes and kiwi. Far from surviving on mammoth meat, the people of Gantangqing were foraging for a rich, plant-based diet in subtropical forests.
“It’s the first time we’ve found such an old site with evidence of hominins exploiting an underground food resource,” says Bo Li, a geochronologist at the University of Wollongong and co-author of the new research. “This group of hominins knew what plants were edible or not and were specifically looking for these plants with wooden tools.”
An Advanced Culture
The find also challenges old assumptions about human evolution in Asia. For years, archaeologists noted that stone tools in East Asia seemed simpler than their European or African counterparts. Some assumed this meant the people who lived there (possibly Homo erectus or Denisovans) were less advanced.
But that conclusion may have been wildly unfair.
Stone was scarce near Gantangqing; the closest source was over five kilometers away. So, its residents adapted, turning to the material that was all around them: wood. Their tools were smart and purpose-built, but much harder to find after millennia of decay. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, as they say.
The discovery doesn’t just rewrite a chapter of early human history — it rewrites the tone. Rather than fierce hunters battling the elements, the humans of Gantangqing come across as patient gatherers, keen observers of seasonal cycles, and expert toolmakers with a flair for woodworking. They knew the land and the plants it offered and adapted to what the land had to offer. They also used wood with a finesse that wasn’t observed in other sites of the same age.
The finding could have other implications, as well. It’s quite possible that it wasn’t just this population that ate of plants. Others may have done it as well, but we just haven’t found the evidence for it.
A Day in the Life
Some 300,000 years ago, the people at Gantangqing inhabited a humid and tropical (or subtropical) environment. We know this based on pollen extracted from the sediment, which shows what plants grew at the site. The landscape was dominated by trees, lianas, and shrubs. The area surrounding the lake was a wetland. Animal fossils also fit this picture, including rhinoceros and other mammals, turtles and various birds. Researchers also found evidence of diving ducks, which confirms that the lake was at least 2-3 meters deep during human occupation.
People stored nuts (pine nuts and hazelnuts) and picked fruits like kiwi, raspberry-like berries, grapes, and edible herbs. Using their wooden tools, the people looked for edible leaves, seeds, tubers and rhizomes. These were likely dug up from shallow mud near the shore.
They seemed to know what to look for, which suggests a fine knowledge of the environment. In fact, the researchers suspect people made expeditions to the lake shore, wih the purpose of harvesting underground food using their tools. To do this, they would need to be aware of seasonal plant distributions and know what plants were edible and where to find them.
The hominins who lived at Gantangqing lived a heavily plant-based subsistence lifestyle. They had access to meat, and also hunted from time to time, but they seem to have hunted far less than other populations in colder, more northern settings where tools of similar age have been found.
We’ve misjudged plenty of things about our ancestors. This new study showed things are even more complex than we thought.
The study was published in Science.
