Ancient Wooden Tools Unearthed in China Rewrite the Origins of Human Diets—300,000 Years Ago

Archaeologists have unearthed 35 sophisticated wooden tools from southwestern China that fundamentally challenge our understanding of early human survival strategies.

Dating to 300,000 years ago, these implements from the Gantangqing site represent the oldest evidence of plant-focused foraging technology outside Europe and Africa—and suggest our ancestors were far more resourceful than previously thought.

The discovery fills a massive gap in the archaeological record. Until now, only two sites worldwide had yielded wooden tools from this period: Schöningen in Germany and Poggetti Vecchi in Italy. Both featured hunting implements like spears and digging sticks for occasional plant gathering.

A Different Path to Survival

What makes the Chinese tools remarkable isn’t just their age—it’s their purpose. Rather than weapons for hunting large game, these implements were specifically designed for extracting and processing plant foods from lakeshores and wetlands.

The tool collection includes large two-handed digging sticks, small pointed hand tools, and uniquely shaped “hook-like” implements carved from trunk bases and roots. Four mysterious lozenge-shaped pieces, each only a few centimeters long, may have served as awls or tools for separating root tangles.

Analysis revealed sophisticated manufacturing techniques. Most tools were crafted from pine wood and show clear evidence of intentional shaping, smoothing, and intensive use. Researchers identified five key attributes across the implements:

• Strategic wood selection for optimal edges and handles
• Visible shaping marks from careful whittling and carving
• Surface smoothing around branch removal sites
• Use-wear evidence including soil residues and tip damage
• Polish and striations from repeated contact with plant materials

Lake-Edge Foraging Strategy

The Gantangqing site sits beside ancient Lake Fuxian in Yunnan province, where early humans established what appears to be a sophisticated plant-processing operation. Environmental evidence suggests the area supported diverse edible resources including pine nuts, hazelnuts, kiwi fruit, berries, and numerous aquatic plants with edible stems, seeds, and underground storage organs.

“These could have been extracted from the shallow waters and muddy deposits of the lake shore by digging sticks and grubbing tools,” the researchers note in Science journal. The strategic location and specialized tools suggest planned visits rather than opportunistic foraging.

The subtropical environment during Marine Isotope Stage 9 provided year-round plant resources that could sustain human populations without heavy reliance on large game hunting—a marked contrast to contemporary European sites where mammoth and other megafauna dominated the diet.

Rewriting East Asian Prehistory

Perhaps most significantly, the discovery challenges long-held assumptions about early human technology in East Asia. Stone tools from the region have often been dismissed as “primitive” compared to European counterparts, leading some researchers to wonder about the cognitive capabilities of eastern populations.

The Gantangqing wooden implements tell a different story. Their sophistication demonstrates that apparent simplicity in stone tool assemblages may reflect material choices rather than limited capabilities. In regions rich with bamboo and other organic resources, early humans may have invested their technological innovation in perishable materials that rarely survive in the archaeological record.

The site also yielded four antler soft hammers—the earliest known from East Asia—alongside stone scrapers and cores, suggesting a complete technological toolkit adapted to local resources and needs.

This evidence supports the “Bamboo Hypothesis,” which proposes that abundant organic materials in East and Southeast Asia allowed early humans to develop effective tool technologies that left little archaeological trace. The Gantangqing discovery provides the first direct confirmation that such organic tool traditions existed and were highly sophisticated.

The findings suggest early human populations developed distinct regional approaches to survival—some focused on large game hunting with spears, others on systematic plant exploitation with specialized digging and processing tools. Both strategies required advanced planning, detailed environmental knowledge, and considerable technological skill.