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| [upper] Locations and examples of stone tool use by wild non-human primates and early hominins. [lower] Archaeologically excavated stone tools used in percussive activities.
Haslam, Hernandez-Aguilar, Proffitt, et al. 2017.
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Abstract
Since its inception, archaeology has traditionally focused exclusively on humans and our direct ancestors. However, recent years have seen archaeological techniques applied to material evidence left behind by non-human animals. Here, we review advances made by the most prominent field investigating past non-human tool use: primate archaeology. This field combines survey of wild primate activity areas with ethological observations, excavations and analyses that allow the reconstruction of past primate behaviour. Because the order Primates includes humans, new insights into the behavioural evolution of apes and monkeys also can be used to better interrogate the record of early tool use in our own, hominin, lineage. This work has recently doubled the set of primate lineages with an excavated archaeological record, adding Old World macaques and New World capuchin monkeys to chimpanzees and humans, and it has shown that tool selection and transport, and discrete site formation, are universal among wild stone-tool-using primates. It has also revealed that wild capuchins regularly break stone tools in a way that can make them difficult to distinguish from simple early hominin tools. Ultimately, this research opens up opportunities for the development of a broader animal archaeology, marking the end of archaeology’s anthropocentric era.
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| Fig. 1 | Locations and examples of stone tool use by wild non-human primates and early hominins. a, Bearded capuchin monkey (Sapajus libidinosus), Brazil. b, West African chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus), Guinea. c, Burmese long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis aurea), Thailand. d, Stone tools from Lomekwi 3, Kenya, dated to 3.3 Myr ago. e, Stone tool from Gona, Ethiopia, dated to 2.6 Myr ago. |
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| Fig. 2 | Archaeologically excavated stone tools used in percussive activities. a, Lomekwi 3 (Kenya); 3.3 Myr old, tool user unknown but possibly Kenyanthropus platyops. b, Panda 100 (Ivory Coast); used by West African chimpanzees (P. t. verus). c, Laem Son 5 (Thailand); used by Burmese long-tailed macaques (M. f. aurea). |
Michael Haslam, R. Adriana Hernandez-Aguilar, Tomos Proffitt, Adrian Arroyo, Tiago Falótico, Dorothy Fragaszy, Michael Gumert, John W. K. Harris, Michael A. Huffman, Ammie K. Kalan, Suchinda Malaivijitnond, Tetsuro Matsuzawa, William McGrew, Eduardo B. Ottoni, Alejandra Pascual-Garrido, Alex Piel, Jill Pruetz, Caroline Schuppli, Fiona Stewart, Amanda Tan, Elisabetta Visalberghi and Lydia V. Luncz. 2017. Primate Archaeology Evolves. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 1; 1431–1437. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0286-4
Primate Archaeology Sheds Light On Human Origins sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090715131437.htm
