NEW YORK – In a remarkable archaeological discovery, two wooden artifacts unearthed along a lakeshore in Greece have been identified as the oldest wooden tools ever found, dating back approximately 430,000 years.

The first artifact is a slender stick, measuring around 2 1/2 feet (80 centimeters) in length, which researchers speculate may have been used for digging in muddy terrain. The second item, a smaller, more enigmatic piece of wood—believed to be from a willow or poplar—might have served as a tool for shaping stone implements, according to findings published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

While ancient humans are known to have utilized a variety of tools made from stone, bone, and wood, evidence of wooden tools is particularly elusive due to their rapid decay. Such artifacts generally survive only in specific conditions, such as frozen environments, caves, or underwater locales.

The newly discovered tools were located in the Megalopolis basin of Greece, where sediment and a consistently wet environment likely contributed to their preservation over millennia. This site has long been a treasure trove for researchers, yielding numerous finds like stone tools and elephant bones bearing cut marks. Although the wooden tools themselves have not been directly dated, the age of the site—estimated at about 430,000 years—provides a reliable context for their antiquity.

“It’s always a thrill to handle these ancient objects,” remarked Annemieke Milks, a study author from the University of Reading, expressing her excitement over the discovery.

Human remains haven’t been found at the site yet, so it’s not yet clear who used the tools. The owners could have been Neanderthals, early human ancestors or someone else.

The site in Greece probably has more gems from the past that are waiting to be found, said archaeologist Jarod Hutson with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. But the unassuming appearance of these two new tools makes them harder to interpret.

“It’s difficult to get excited about these because they don’t strike you immediately as wooden tools. And we don’t know what they were used for,” said Hutson, who was not involved with the new study.

Other examples of ancient wooden tools include a set of spears from Germany and 300,000-year-old Chinese digging sticks that may have been used to harvest plants.

The new find offers a rare look into the varied collection of tools used to survive — a glimpse at a “little known aspect of the technology of early humans,” study author Katerina Harvati with the University of Tübingen said in an email.

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