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FIGURE . Distribution of correct detection scores by totally naïve subjects, untutored (N = ) in Experiment versus tutored (N = ) in Experiment . Chance level of indicated by black vertical line.
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Non-human primates using stones in nature provide a rare opportunity to compare directly the behaviour of use with the resulting lithic artifacts. Wild Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) customarily do "stone handling" (SH = spontaneous, solitary, non-instrumental and seemingly playful manipulation of stones). Ten populations of monkeys show at lea...
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... mean score was . (median , range -), a percent improvement when compared to the untutored Class subjects in Experiment . Of the subjects, had scores of > or above, while only three were < (three scored , or chance) (see Figure ). This difference was highly significant: n = , n = , z = ., ...Similar publications
Kenya National Museums Lukenya Hill Hominid 1 (KNM-LH 1) is a Homo sapiens partial calvaria from site GvJm-22 at Lukenya Hill, Kenya, associated with Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological deposits. KNM-LH 1 is securely dated to the Late Pleistocene, and samples a time and region important for understanding the origins of modern human diversity. A re...
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... Wanting to be the devil's advocate, I could guess that some structures composed by slabs and cobbles could have been used by monkeys as cracking loci (Haslam et al., 2016) and the simplest and chaotic structures, composed of cobbles, could have been something analogous to the ''play stations'', i.e., re-visited places where Japanese macaques amass stones, as defined by McGrew et al. (2014). However, this latter behaviour has never been recorded in American primates, as confirmed by Dorothy Fragaszy, a renowned ethologist who works on Brazilian monkeys: ''Capuchin monkeys do not, to my knowledge, create piles of stones in the same manner that Japanese macaques do, as reported by Leca et al. (2010)'' (Fragaszy, verbal communication, 2023. ...
Three decades after the end of excavations at Pedra Furada, Northeastern Brazil, the site has been almost excluded from the debate about the first phase of human expansion in the Americas. Since the radiocarbon chronology spanning a period from 7 to 60 Ky ago is unquestioned, most scepticism focuses on the anthropic nature of the artifacts and structures from the Pleistocene layers. The main objections concern the flaked tools on endogenous raw material, possibly resulting from rock spalling or being the involuntary product of monkeys’ battering activities. Fireplaces and other structures have been also questioned on the basis of the occurrence of bush fires and possible waterflow. In this paper the entire evidence from the Pleistocene units is updated and presented in English, in a dynamic display aiming to facilitate the inspection by the reader, including hundreds of unpublished photographs. The main objections questioning the validity of this important archaeological sequence are discussed in the context of its regional setting and of the main pre-LGM sites in the Americas.
... Los más jóvenes imitan esta actividad (a primera vista inútil) tanto de compañeros de la misma edad como de sus hermanos y madres, la cual ha logrado convertirse en una tradición fuertemente extendida dentro del grupo. El motivo por el cual lo hacen no está claro y Huffman lo califica de comportamiento no adaptativo (Huffman, 1984;McGrew, Matsumoto, Nakamura, Phillips & Stewart, 2014). ...
En este artículo los autores pretenden defender que las variantes y rasgos culturales están presentes en gran cantidad de especies animales no humanas, entendiendo el término “cultura” como toda conducta, costumbres, hábitos y rasgos comportamentales que sean transmitidos social y no genéticamente de una generación a la siguiente, excluyendo los conocimientos y habilidades que los individuos adquieren por su cuenta. Las investigaciones experimentales que se vienen realizando desde hace ya algunas décadas, sugieren que la cultura está más extendida en la naturaleza de lo que se pensaba. Los animales sociales dependen de la cultura para sobrevivir, pues es precisamente esta la que permite que estrategias de supervivencia eficaces pasen de una generación a otra. Entender por qué algunos animales –sobre todo los más próximos a nosotros– actúan de una u otra manera frente a situaciones específicas, puede arrojar luces sobre nuestro propio comportamiento.
... The development of viable methods for identifying and interpreting past non-human tool use landscapes is essential if we are to gain a better understanding of technological evolution within other animals, including our close relatives, the primates. Recently, the growth of primate archaeology has built on the close phylogenetic relationship between humans and other primates to begin filling in this lacuna (Haslam et al., 2009; Carvalho, 2011; Stewart et al., 2011; Haslam, 2012 Haslam, , 2014 Visalberghi et al., 2013; Haslam et al., 2014; McGrew et al., 2014; Benito-Calvo et al., 2015; Luncz et al., 2015; Kühl et al., 2016). Here, we present the first report on an archaeologically excavated Old World monkey tool use site, which was created by wild Burmese long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea) (Bunlungsup et al., 2016) during shellfish-processing activities in coastal Thailand. ...
More than 3 million years of excavated archaeological evidence (Harmand et al., 2015) underlies most major insights into the evolution of human behaviour. However, we have seen almost no use of archaeological excavation to similarly broaden our under- standing of behaviour in other animal lineages. The few published examples include recovery of a late Holocene assemblage of stones from the Ivory Coast, attributed to the agency of both humans (Homo sapiens) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) (Mercader et al., 2002, 2007), and exploration of the occupation sites of non- tool-using species such as penguins (Emslie et al., 2014) and other birds (Burnham et al., 2009). The development of viable methods for identifying and interpreting past non-human tool use landscapes is essential if we are to gain a better understanding of technological evolution within other animals, including our close relatives, the primates. Recently, the growth of primate archaeology has built on the close phylogenetic relationship between humans and other primates to begin filling in this lacuna (Haslam et al., 2009; Carvalho, 2011; Stewart et al., 2011; Haslam, 2012, 2014; Visalberghi et al., 2013; Haslam et al., 2014; McGrew et al., 2014; Benito-Calvo et al., 2015; Luncz et al., 2015; Kühl et al., 2016).
Here, we present the first report on an archaeologically exca- vated Old World monkey tool use site, which was created by wild Burmese long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea) (Bunlungsup et al., 2016) during shellfish-processing activities in coastal Thailand. These macaques use stone and shell pounding tools to access a wide variety of coastal and inter-tidal resources, including shellfish, crabs and nuts (Fig. 1) (Malaivijitnond et al., 2007; Gumert et al., 2009, 2011; Gumert and Malaivijitnond, 2012; Tan et al., 2015), and previous work has demonstrated that use-wear on the stone tools permits reconstruction of past ma- caque activities (Haslam et al., 2013). Uncovering the history of this foraging behaviour opens up opportunities to study its evolution within the macaque lineage and, more broadly, to retrieve comparative data for researchers studying human and primate coastal exploitation (e.g., Marean, 2014; Russon et al., 2014).
... Stone handling, however, is a behavioural tradition found uniquely among Japanese macaques and has been observed in multiple groups 13,17 . Although stone handling is not a form of tool use 18 , the behaviour occurs frequently enough to result in recognizable use-wear patterns 19 . Of particular interest is the accumulation of stones at 'play stations' which has the potential to leave behind archaeological evidence of the behaviour 19 , similar to chimpanzee and capuchin nut-cracking sites 8 . ...
... Although stone handling is not a form of tool use 18 , the behaviour occurs frequently enough to result in recognizable use-wear patterns 19 . Of particular interest is the accumulation of stones at 'play stations' which has the potential to leave behind archaeological evidence of the behaviour 19 , similar to chimpanzee and capuchin nut-cracking sites 8 . ...
The study of the archaeological remains of fossil hominins must rely on reconstructions to elucidate the behaviour that may have resulted in particular stone tools and their accumulation. Comparatively, stone tool use among living primates has illuminated behaviours that are also amenable to archaeological examination, permitting direct observations of the behaviour leading to artefacts and their assemblages to be incorporated. Here, we describe newly discovered stone tool-use behaviour and stone accumulation sites in wild chimpanzees reminiscent of human cairns. In addition to data from 17 mid- to long-term chimpanzee research sites, we sampled a further 34 Pan troglodytes communities. We found four populations in West Africa where chimpanzees habitually bang and throw rocks against trees, or toss them into tree cavities, resulting in conspicuous stone accumulations at these sites. This represents the first record of repeated observations of individual chimpanzees exhibiting stone tool use for a purpose other than extractive foraging at what appear to be targeted trees. The ritualized behavioural display and collection of artefacts at particular locations observed in chimpanzee accumulative stone throwing may have implications for the inferences that can be drawn from archaeological stone assemblages and the origins of ritual sites.
... Further, because concepts of agency and personhood are related to cognition in some of its human manifestations, we believe that they are worth considering in tool-using NHP. Our paper presents one way of bringing a cognitive element into the new field of primate archaeology (Carvalho et al., 2008; Haslam et al., 2009; Stewart et al., 2011; Haslam, 2012 Haslam, , 2014a Haslam, , 2014b McGrew et al., 2014). ...
The concept of extended or distributed cognition has been present in archaeology for some time, yet despite its inclusion of non-human hominin ancestors, it has remained distinctly anthropocentric in nature. Here, we suggest that the same concept may also be used to independently describe and interpret non-human animals within their own social and material networks. We illustrate this suggestion with examples from the tool use behaviour of wild monkeys and chimpanzees. Non-human primate social groups develop bodies of traditional knowledge, and we consider whether idiosyncratic expression of such knowledge may be viewed in terms of an individual's constructed social identity. At a micro-level, the performance of an individual tool use technique may be analogous to the idea of ‘personhood’ found in anthropological holistic or perspectivist theory; at a macro-level the physical and social distribution of primate technology is amenable to interpretation as an example of extended or distributed cognition. We conclude that combined consideration of extended cognition and niche construction offers a promising means for interpreting the material residues of non-human primate behaviour.
... Furthermore, these methods are applicable not only to meso-scale 3D scans, but also to microtopographic models, and can be used to establish patterns of tool damage and use wear in lithic assemblages. The newly emerged field of Primate Archaeology aims establishing analytical foundations to interpret primate behavior from an archaeological viewpoint [6], [45], [62][63][64], but much work is still needed to develop appropriate comparative protocols with the archaeological record. This paper has presented the first systematic GIS analysis of stone tools used by modern wild chimpanzees during nut-cracking activities, and in doing so has also provided innovative First GIS Analysis of Bossou Chimpanzees Modern Tools analytical techniques that can be applied to the early human archeological record, therefore prompting comparisons. ...
Stone tool use by wild chimpanzees of West Africa offers a unique opportunity to explore the evolutionary roots of technology during human evolution. However, detailed analyses of chimpanzee stone artifacts are still lacking, thus precluding a comparison with the earliest archaeological record. This paper presents the first systematic study of stone tools used by wild chimpanzees to crack open nuts in Bossou (Guinea-Conakry), and applies pioneering analytical techniques to such artifacts. Automatic morphometric GIS classification enabled to create maps of use wear over the stone tools (anvils, hammers, and hammers/ anvils), which were blind tested with GIS spatial analysis of damage patterns identified visually. Our analysis shows that chimpanzee stone tool use wear can be systematized and specific damage patterns discerned, allowing to discriminate between active and passive pounders in lithic assemblages. In summary, our results demonstrate the heuristic potential of combined suites of GIS techniques for the analysis of battered artifacts, and have enabled creating a referential framework of analysis in which wild chimpanzee battered tools can for the first time be directly compared to the early archaeological record.
and Keywords The origin of technology is believed to have marked a major adaptive shift in human evolution. Understanding the evolutionary process(es) underlying the first human adaptation to tool use, and the subsequent process(es) that led Homo sapiens to become the only extant primate fully dependent on technology, is one of the most stimulating topics of research of present-day archaeology. New fields of research have been founded (e.g. primate archaeology, Pliocene archaeology) during the quest to find out how old technology is, where it originated, and who were the first tool users. Historically, the vast majority of the information on this topic comes from the study of lithic (stone) tools, tools whose manufacture was generally believed to be a uniquely human characteristic until well into the 1960s. The production of lithic technology was linked first to the origin of the earliest hominins (the taxonomic group comprising modern humans, extinct human species, and all immediate human ancestors), being thought to have co-evolved with traits such as bipedalism or hunting/scavenging, and later to the evolution of the genus Homo and accompanying increases in brain size. As a result of breakthroughs in the field of primatology, and greater interdisciplinary work between archaeologists and primatologists, a paradigm shift in beliefs surrounding the uniqueness of human technology is underway. Following discoveries from the second half of the 20th century and the early 21st century, habitual tool use, tool manufacture, and the production of flakes are now known to occur in extant non-human species, firmly decoupling brain size expansion, bipedalism, and the origins of technology. Knapped stone tools and cut-marked bones have been discovered dating to ca. half a million years before the earliest evidence of Homo, giving rise to the possibility that earlier, previously unconsidered hominins, or even other extinct non-human primates, could have been responsible for the inception of tool use and manufacture. Following these advances, it is reasonable to hypothesize that the origins of technology may lie much further back in time than the earliest discovered modified stone tools-perhaps as far back as the late Miocene with the last common ancestor of Homo and Pan. Moreover, discoveries of lithic technology in more distantly related species, where convergent evolution is the most parsimonious explanation, strongly suggest the existence of multiple evolutionary pathways for technological
