7,000 Years-Old Neolithic 'Wood Architecture' in Germany

Early Neolithic Water Wells Reveal the World's Oldest Wood Architecture
(plosone.org)

The European Neolithization ~6000−4000 BC represents a pivotal change in human history when farming spread and the mobile style of life of the hunter-foragers was superseded by the agrarian culture. Permanent settlement structures and agricultural production systems required fundamental innovations in technology, subsistence, and resource utilization. Motivation, course, and timing of this transformation, however, remain debatable. Here we present annually resolved and absolutely dated dendroarchaeological information from four wooden water wells of the early Neolithic period that were excavated in Eastern Germany. A total of 151 oak timbers preserved in a waterlogged environment were dated between 5469 and 5098 BC and reveal unexpectedly refined carpentry skills. The recently discovered water wells enable for the first time a detailed insight into the earliest wood architecture and display the technological capabilities of humans ~7000 years ago.

(View article for more images)

This was done 1,000 years before the use of metal tools. We're used to seeing evidence of neolithic activity in Egypt or the ancient Middle East, but few signs of it have survived from Europe. Here we see early European populations were just as capable of complex construction techniques as those that would rise in the Middle East millenniums later.

S&F for the post. Very interesting indeed. I wonder if not metal, perhaps they used stone tipped tools for cutting, carving and holes? Any images of the tools or no?

Very good find!

Thank you for posting that. It is always great to learn about our ancestors!

Good old tongue in groove.
Just go to show a good idea stands the test of time.

Excellent Excellent Excellent !!!

many thanks for posting this, this is why ATS is a great place to be .


thanks

snoopyuk

Originally posted by Blackmarketeer
Here we present annually resolved and absolutely dated dendroarchaeological information from four wooden water wells of the early Neolithic period that were excavated in Eastern Germany. A total of 151 oak timbers preserved in a waterlogged environment were dated between 5469 and 5098 BC and reveal unexpectedly refined carpentry skills. The recently discovered water wells enable for the first time a detailed insight into the earliest wood architecture and display the technological capabilities of humans ~7000 years ago.


This was done 1,000 years before the use of metal tools. We're used to seeing evidence of neolithic activity in Egypt or the ancient Middle East, but few signs of it have survived from Europe. Here we see early European populations were just as capable of complex construction techniques as those that would rise in the Middle East millenniums later.

It says - reveal unexpectedly refined carpentry skills - European populations were just as capable of complex construction techniques as those that would rise in the Middle East millenniums later.

WHY is there Any surprise at all? These are Not monkeys we are talking about, they are Men ( and or women)

Why is it so hard to believe that humans 7000 years ago or older could have these abilities? This is Simple Woodworking. This isn't even an Escher carving. I fully expect these humans to be way more advanced than this and this is just what happened to survive. Yet this simple woodworking is delegated to the realm of "unexpectedly refined carpentry skills" - says Who? The monkey with the Phd?

There are No facts that prove ancient man was as simple as today's modern science makes them out to be. This is done to sell the theory that Man has Evolved by today's scientific vernacular. I find the wording of this article highly insulting to humans everywhere. Who is to say that at the time the first modern humans appeared they did not have fully functioning mental facilities? Humans had over 193 thousand years to develop before these people came and built the wooden boxes.. surely they learned a thing or two in that time. Modern Humans appeared on the scene about 200,000 years ago. en.wikipedia.org...

If civilization disappeared tomorrow, how many of us would be able to create and harness electricity or create complex wooden or rock structures? Not many of us.... that's guaranteed. Despite all the schooling we go through, we are not taught some of the most important survival techniques in case of emergencies. I think schools should have a class on survival so that we don't lose the basic skill necessities if SHTF. Most of us would never have to use those skills, but it's so important to know just in case.

It surprises me every time scientists are surprised by the cleverness of ancient humans. People figure it out, they get creative, they invent and create. That's what we do. Even monkeys and birds use tools.

I just love being able to see 7000 year old wooden objects! It might all just be part of a well, but would be great to see on the Antiques Road Show!!!

It certainly represents a lot of effort by stuff done with stone tools. However I guess if you were going to build a well without bricks, then this would be the way to do it. The water must have tasted like scotch whisky, i.e. with a bitter flavor of oak (probably good for health).
Then again... Maybe it's the worlds earliest booze factory? All that effort makes so much sense now!

Holy Crap...7000 years ago. thats a hell of a long time ago. Thats 5 thousand years BC My mind is blown first that humans had the technical skill to build something like this when they were supposed to be simple minded hunter gatherers. Keeping in mind that apparently humans only invested writing in 3000 BC, 2000 years AFTER they had developed this technology.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Nice. 7,000 year-old Lincoln logs. What will they find next, 10,000 year-old Tinker Toys?

Thanks for posting, OP. Quite interesting.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Excellent post.

Human civilization has advanced and fell over time.

Great discoveries and technical advancements have been made by many civilizations in the past on this Earth.

The vile and prude current man believes he is the only one to know science.

Nothing lasts long on this planet. Great objects and buildings emerge from the dust and eventually turns to dust again. Very little (almost nothing) survives thousands of years, let alone millions. So the time erases the tracks. The same will happen to current civilization also.

German craftsmanship is built to last.

This doesn't surprise me (even though it will surprise fundamentalist christians who believe the earth is 6,000 years old and didn't realize IKEA was already open and running by that time), but finding it does. It's nice that some human woodworking has survived from that era. This could have easily been made with stone tools, and took a cave-man or woman with imagination and a keen ability to see "end results" with nothing in front of them but fallen tree limbs or a tree stuck by lightning.

If you think about it, 7,000 years after this was made, modern man was still using the same level of building skills to settle North America with log cabins and such. If these stone-age Europeans were using this type of construction for water wells, we have to assume they were building equally-sophisticated housing.

reply to post by GargIndia


I deeply believe this myself, that we are on just another revolution of the wheel of time. That there are great periods where mankind over comes differences and ignorance and make profound progress, followed by periods where self interest, greed, and ignorance cast mankind back to a primal state.

I have to believe that some day we will finally break through this cycle and never look back. Regretfully I feel that this particular cycle is not the one we will break through as we have failed to cast away differences, and we are riddled with more ignorance today then years past.

We have advanced technology that poisons us and the earth, that leads to our own regression and as a result we will continue to plummet until an equilibrium is met at which point we may again progress forward on the long and slow path we have walked time and time again.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Unexpected for the tools available at the time is what they're saying, not unexpected for humans at the time.

Chopping down 300 year old oaks, splitting them and then shaping the tenon joints using nothing but
Stone and wooden tools is amazing and shows what a bit of tenacity and hard work can achieve.

reply to post by GargIndia


Yet this wood, carved by stone tools lasted 7000 years...

Originally posted by MrInquisitive
reply to post by Blackmarketeer

 

Nice. 7,000 year-old Lincoln logs. What will they find next, 10,000 year-old Tinker Toys?

Thanks for posting, OP. Quite interesting.

I was way too late for the Lincoln log pun...

yet some Afrocentric bigots mock Europeans for being "cavedwellers"- fool you...............

Originally posted by Credenceskynyrd
yet some Afrocentric bigots mock Europeans for being "cavedwellers"- fool you...............

Where have you ever heard any such thing? Seriously.

Once again Caucasian/European/Amurriken faux victimhood rears its pathetic head.

Sounds like somebody is just embarrassed of their disproportionately Neanderthal DNA-rich genes.