Beyond the pail — Stone Age well is world’s oldest wooden structure

A 7300-year-old well unearthed by construction workers is the oldest wooden structure ever discovered.

Marks made by stone tools more than 7000 years ago were left on the wood of the well found in the Czech Republic.

A 7300-year-old well unearthed by construction workers is the oldest wooden structure discovered, according to archaeologists who say it provides evidence of our Stone Age forebears’ tech­nical skill.

The well, consisting of four corner posts and rows of planks lining a square shaft, was found during work on a motorway near Ostrov in the Czech Republic. The oak timbers were in excellent condition because of the waterlogged ground, with marks from the makers’ stone tools visible.

Researchers used the tree rings visible in cut sections of the wood to date most of the timbers to ­between 5259BC and 5255BC — more than 2600 years before the pyramids at Giza.

The archaeologists believe it is the oldest reliably dated wooden structure in the world. It is the second well of its kind known to date from before the Bronze Age. The other one, also in the Czech Republ­ic, dates from about 150 years later. Subsequent wells of the same pattern have been found from the Bronze Age onwards, continuing into the Roman and medieval periods.

Writing in the Journal of Arch­aeological Science, the team from Czech and German universities said the construction revealed “advanced technical know-how”, with two grooves set at 90 degrees to each other cut into each of the corner posts to hold the lining planks. One of the posts dating from 10 years before the others may have been re­cycled from a previous structure, while a lining plank dating from the decades afterw­ards is probably evidence of repair. The timbers were cut using polished stone axes and adzes, they added.

Jaroslav Peska, of the Archaeological Centre of Olomouc, said: “We had no idea that the first farmers, who only had tools made of stone, bones, horns, or wood, were able to process the surface of felled trunks with such precision.”

The Times