Editing Digging stick (section)

{{Short description|Primitive wooden implement used primarily by subsistence-based cultures to dig out underground food}}
[[File:Root digging stick at Rocky Reach Dam Museum 2.jpg|alt=|thumb|A digging stick of the Pacific Northwest coast]]
[[File:Nuba_farming_1.jpg|alt=|thumb|[[Nuba]] person farming in the [[Nuba Mountains]], [[Sudan]] ]]
A '''digging stick''', sometimes called a '''yam stick''', is a wooden implement used primarily by [[List of subsistence techniques|subsistence-based]] cultures to dig out underground food such as roots and [[tuber]]s, [[tillage|tilling]] the soil,<ref>{{cite web | title=Definition of digging stick | website=[[Dictionary.com]] | date=2021 | url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/digging-stick | access-date=18 July 2021}}</ref> or [[burrowing animals]] and [[anthill]]s. It is a term used in [[archaeology]] and [[anthropology]] to describe similar implements, which usually consists of little more than a sturdy [[twig|stick]] which has been shaped or sharpened and sometimes hardened by being placed temporarily in a fire.{{cn|date=July 2021}}

Fashioned with handles for pulling or pushing, it forms a prehistoric [[plough]], and is also described as a type of [[Hoe (tool)|hoe]].<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved March 26, 2015, from Britannica.com website: [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/163245/digging-stick Digging stick]</ref>
Digging sticks more than 170,000 years old, made of [[boxwood]] by [[Neanderthal]]s, have been found in Italy.<ref>{{cite journal|display-authors=etal |last1=Biancamaria Aranguren |title=Wooden tools and fire technology in the early Neanderthal site of Poggetti Vecchi (Italy) |journal=[[PNAS]] |date=Feb 5, 2018 |volume=115 |issue=9 |pages=2054–2059 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1716068115|pmid=29432163 |pmc=5834685 |bibcode=2018PNAS..115.2054A |doi-access=free }}</ref>