It predates rise of modern humans and could have formed a platform
The researchers don’t know which ancient human species made the structure and the tools, but it’s unlikely to have been Homo sapiens. The earliest fossils of Homo sapiens found so far date from around 300,000 years ago and were found in Israel, Dull told CNN. He believes the people who made the structure were cognitively sophisticated and it would be very exciting to figure out who constructed this.
There's an interview with one of the researchers who found this on quirks and quarks last weekend. Quirks and quarks is a long running science show on CBC in Canada. Rather interesting, the scientist said at first they thought maybe the flood waters had washed the wood into that formation or something but there are apparently clear tool marks and signs it was deliberately formed.
That's not how evolution works, though. Our ancestors could have very well been way smarter than us, but didn't have enough time to accumulate enough knowledge for significant technology advancement. Then in came us, reproduced like rabbits, survived better the current conditions, and bam. No more ancestors.
I'm not saying this is what happened. I'm saying that just assuming that "our ancestors were less than us" is also quite the reach.
Maybe 10,000 years from now, "people" will say that our ancestors (that is, us), were smarter than them, except for the whole fucking up the climate. Or maybe not. Evolution is chaotic.
Like others and the article said, it predates when we believe homo sapiens first evolved by a few hundred thousand years.
So if it was built by H. Sapiens either A. We really missed the mark on when we first evolved and we need to go back and really examine our findings, or B. Time travel shenanigans.
above a 235-meter waterfall on the border between Zambia and the Rukwa Region of Tanzania, at the edge of Lake Tanganyika
this must have been an awesome sight at the time.. they were real masters of their environment from a strategic position like that.. tremendous access to resources, and perhaps easily defensible against other hostile hominids.. at least the best view around, which is worth a lot in the Stone Age both economically and spiritually..
If fossilization is the only way for you to recognize history its never going to be complete you will always be missing fragments that changes everything. I guarantee you their are billions if not trillions of species missing because we can only determine by fossilization.