Object Number: VRM10627

Dimensions: 67 x 42 cm

Materials: Fossilised Wood

Find Location: Pahartali, Raozan Upazila, Chattogram District, Bangladesh

Date: over 100,000 years ago

This large fragment of wood was buried over 100,000 years ago in wet sediment, perhaps in a river. The waterlogged environment was free from oxygen, which protected the wood from decay and over time its organic structure was slowly replaced with minerals. This transformed it into stone in a process called petrification. The fossilised species indicates that Bangladesh had a warm tropical climate with high precipitation.  

The discovery of Upper Palaeolithic tools at Kana in West Bengal suggests that the first modern humans encountered the dense rainforests of the Bengal Basin around 42,000 years ago. However, evidence for early human occupation in Bangladesh is scarce as regular silting, flooding, and movement of major rivers, as well as later settlements and agricultural development, have removed or buried the traces of prehistoric communities.

In addition to hunting and constructing shelters, prehistoric communities likely used fossilised wood tools to cut down trees. Finds of prehistoric axes, blades, scrapers and objects known as ‘celts’, which are similar to an adze or cutting tool, are currently limited to eastern hilly regions of Bangladesh, including Comilla, Feni, Sylhet and Chittagong. Recognisable as stone tools, many were shaped and crafted from fragments of fossilised wood. Over time, human populations increased and expanded to begin a process of deforestation across the Bengal Basin, which led to the development of intensive agriculture and the emergence of the first urban centres within the region.