Did Denisovans or Homo Erectus Make the Oldest Wooden Tools in East Asia?
GANTANGQING ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE, JIANGCHUAN COUNTY, YUNNAN PROVINCE, CHINA, JUL 3 – The 35 wooden tools reveal early humans used complex technology to harvest underground plants, indicating advanced cognition and a plant-based diet, researchers said.
- Researchers published a study on July 3, 2025, revealing 300,000-year-old wooden tools from the Gantangqing site in southwest China.
- The discovery stems from excavations in clay sediments by an ancient lakeshore, where pre-100,000-year-old wooden tools are rare outside Africa and Western Eurasia.
- Among the 35 tools discovered, two large digging sticks were identified as heavy-duty implements used to harvest subterranean edible parts of plants, including tubers, rhizomes, and corms.
- Professor Bo Li stated that the discovery captures a specific period when ancient humans employed advanced wooden implements to gather subterranean edible plants, thereby revising previous ideas about how early humans adapted.
- This discovery expands knowledge of Middle Pleistocene East Asian hominin technology and suggests strategic use of lakeshore plant resources in a subtropical environment.
26 Articles
26 Articles


300,000-Year-Old Wooden Tools Discovered in China
Newly uncovered wooden tools from Pleistocene China reveal complex, plant-focused technology far earlier than expected in East Asia. Researchers working at the Pleistocene-era Gantangqing site in southwestern China have uncovered a diverse set of wooden tools dating from approximately 361,000 to 250,000 years ago. This discovery represents the oldest known example of advanced wooden tool [...]


300,000-year-old wooden tools unearthed in SW China's Yunnan
An assemblage of 35 wooden tools dating back to 300,000 years ago were unearthed from the Gantangqing site in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, according to a paper published in the international journal Science by the site's archaeological team on Thursday.
300,000-year-old wooden tools unearthed in southwest China
Modified wooden tool and shaping, use-wear marks on the object. Credit: Liu et al (2025), ‘300,000-year-old wooden tools from Gantangqing, southwest China’, Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.adr854 Recent excavations in Gantangqing, China, have produced the earliest known evidence of complex wooden tool technology in East Asia. The wooden tools were found alongside stone tools, antler billets (soft hammers used for stone toolmaking) and cut-marked b…
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