The great first cities in Mesopotamia, China, and South America were all built after the end of the last ice age, roughly 10 kyr ago. Holocene cities in stone, surviving millenia.
We’ve been tool users much longer than that, over 3 Myr, 300 times longer. It’s impossible to imagine that in those millions of tool using years no one thought to cut down a tree and build something. But wood decays and mostly disappears from the fossil record, so it’s all speculation. Last week, the oldest known wooden structure was 9 ky. Today it’s almost 500 kyr.
Archeologists announced finding 476 kyr old logs with interlocking notches which would stabilize construction. They’re calling them Lincoln logs. I spent hours building stuff with Lincoln logs as a kid. The logs show evidence of chopping and shaping and hand axes and other tools were found nearby.
