Geological Survey, Columbus, Ohio (20,338 square feet)

So when his team uncovered the logs in 2019, they were still able to see telltale signs that early humans had shaped them — carving out a notch in the upper log, tapering off the ends and leaving tool marks across the surface.“Everything just looks so fresh, you think, ‘It cannot be this old,’” Barham said.

Figuring out just how old posed its own challenge, since traditional dating techniques couldn’t get deep enough into the past. In this study, researchers used a new method called luminescence dating, which uses tiny minerals in the sand to estimate how long materials have been buried, explained study author Geoff Duller, an expert in dating methods at Aberystwyth University in Wales.This photo provided by researchers shows Kalambo Falls in Zambia in 2019. A pair of crossed logs found on a riverbed nearby may be the oldest evidence of early humans building with wood, nearly half a million years old, according to a study published Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2023 in the journal Nature. (Geoff Duller/Aberystwyth University via AP)This photo provided by researchers shows Kalambo Falls in Zambia in 2019. A pair of crossed logs found on a riverbed nearby may be the oldest evidence of early humans building with wood, nearly half a million years old, according to a study published Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2023 in the journal Nature. (Geoff Duller/Aberystwyth University via AP)

The log structure was made at least 476,000 years ago, while the wood tools are slightly younger, under 400,000 years old. That places the materials in a time before our species, Homo sapiens, evolved.They would have been made by another kind of early human cousin — possibly Homo heidelbergensis, which was around in Africa at the time, authors said.

If these ancient humans were putting effort into “the furniture of the site,” it suggests they may have stayed for a while or made repeat visits — not just roamed around as bands of hunter-gatherers, according to Dirk Leder, an archaeologist at Germany’s Lower Saxony State Office for Cultural Heritage who was not involved with the research.

In this photo provided by researchers, an excavation team uncovers a wooden structure found on a riverbed near a waterfall in Zambia in 2019. The pair of crossed logs may be the oldest evidence of early humans building with wood, nearly half a million years old, according to a study published Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2023 in the journal Nature. (Larry Barham/University of Liverpool via AP)The company said it felt some pain from boycotts by customers. It scaled back many diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives early this year following criticism by the White House and conservative activists, which drew its own backlash. Perhaps more worryingly for Wall Street, Target also cut its forecast for profit over the full year.

Carter’s, which sells apparel for babies and young children, sank 12.6% after cutting its dividend.CEO Doug Palladini said the company made the move in part because of investments it anticipates making in upcoming years, as well as the possibility that it “may incur significantly higher product costs as the result of the new proposed tariffs on products imported into the United States.”

All told, the S&P 500 fell 95.85 points to 5,844.61. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 816.80 to 41,860.44, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 270.07 to 18,872.64.A growing number of companies have recently said tariffs and uncertainty about the economy