Primate archeology

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Tool used by a bonobo who uses a stick to bring termites to his mouth

The primate archeology ( engl. : Primate archeology ) is an interdisciplinary scientific field, in particular the Palaeoanthropologists , anthropologists and Prehistorians with those behavioral biologists (primatologists) cooperate, the chimpanzees and other primates explore. The aim of this cooperation is mainly the origin and history of the earliest verifiable material culture in primates (the production of tools) to explore, both in the early Hominini - the ancestors of anatomically modern humans - and in him evolutionarily related Great apes .

The term primate archeology was coined in July 2009 by an international group of researchers in a review article under the concise title “Primate archeology” in the journal Nature . This publication came about as a follow-up to two symposia entitled “Palaeoanthropology meets Primatology” that took place in April 2007 and October 2008 at the Leverhulme Center for Human Evolutionary Studies at the University of Cambridge . Previously, the more restrictive term Chimpanzee archeology ("chimpanzee archeology") had already been used in a specialist publication in 2008 .

Research goals

Increased cooperation between archaeologists, primatologists and paleoanthropologists had proven expedient and long overdue after it had been recognized that the oldest stone tools of the Oldowan type attributed to hominini , stone tools from chimpanzees living today and even stone tools from dorsal strip capuchins living today have considerable similarities exhibit. In 2002 Julio Mercader and Christophe Boesch had also excavated a "chimpanzee workshop" which was later dated to an age of 4,300 years. From the precise analysis of such parallels, the researchers hope to be able to reconstruct the development of the tool culture in humans and the behavior required for this. The merging of methods from archeology and behavioral biology also enables a holistic view of the evolutionary adaptation of the anatomical features of the genus Homo to the use of tools.

In the past, only a few archaeologists had observed the use of tools by primates living today; conversely, only a few primate researchers had participated in archaeological excavations. In the review article, created in 2009 as the founding document, four primary objectives for primate archeology were identified:

  1. Archaeological and primatological methods should be used simultaneously when analyzing tool use by non-human primates to analyze behavioral history from both an anthropocentric and a 'primatocentric' point of view;
  2. Comparative studies between different species (between hominine and non-hominine species) with similar tool use should help to clarify the question of the effects of tool use on social, physiological and biomechanical aspects of these species and on their environmental conditions ;
  3. The behavior of members of primate species who do not use tools should be investigated in order to gain clues as to under which - for example ecological - conditions their behavior patterns developed, with the aim of drawing conclusions about the behavior of extinct species of hominini in which it is unclear whether they used tools;
  4. Finally, it should be investigated whether the tool use observed in the species living today developed independently of one another (i.e. convergent ) or whether the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and hominini, for example, produced tools.

First findings

Crab-eating macaque from Myanmar ( Macaca fascicularis aurea ) with stone tool

As “one of the first comprehensive empirical examples of the new field of primate archeology”, a long-term study was referred to in the journal Nature in June 2013 , which looked at the tool use of the dorsal capuchins in Brazil . When observing these capuchin monkeys, it was noticed that they transport stones over great distances. Two years earlier, this had been described as a unique selling point of the early ancestors of anatomically modern humans; all other features of the Oldowan stone tools are not clearly distinguishable from those made by non-human primates living today.

The 4300-year-old “Chimpanzee Workshop”, discovered in the African rainforest in 2002, had already caused a stir. Another example of research in the field of primate archeology are studies in the habitat of cynomolgus monkey from Myanmar ( Macaca fascicularis aurea ), one of which is occupied for 120 years that they use stones as tools; Here the researchers hope to find traces of tool use in older layers of the earth.

See also

literature

  • John Gowlett: Artefacts of apes, humans, and others: towards comparative assessment and analysis. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 57, No. 4, 2009, pp. 401-410, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2009.04.011
  • Michael Haslam et al .: Primate archeology. Review in: Nature . Volume 60, 2009, pp. 339-344, doi: 10.1038 / nature08188 , full text
  • Michael Haslam et al .: Primate archeology evolves. Review in: Nature Ecology & Evolution. Volume 1, 2017, pp. 1431-1437, doi: 10.1038 / s41559-017-0286-4
  • Andrew Whiten et al .: Cultural panthropology. In: Evolutionary Anthropology. Volume 12, No. 2, 2003, pp. 92-105, doi: 10.1002 / evan.10107
  • Andrew Whiten et al .: The evolution and cultural transmission of percussive technology: integrating evidence from palaeoanthropology and primatology. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 57, No. 4, 2009, pp. 420-435, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2008.12.010
  • Thomas Wynn et al .: An Ape's View of the Oldowan. In: Man. (New Series) Vol. 24, No. 3, 1989, pp. 383-398
  • Thomas Wynn et al .: "An ape's view of the Oldowan" revisited. In: Evolutionary Anthropology. Volume 20, No. 5, 2011, pp. 181-197, doi: 10.1002 / evan.20323

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Haslam, Adriana Hernandez-Aguilar, Victoria Ling, Susana Carvalho, Ignacio de la Torre, April DeStefano, Andrew Du, Bruce Hardy, Jack Harris, Linda Marchant, Tetsuro Matsuzawa, William McGrew, Julio Mercader, Rafael Mora, Michael Petraglia, Hélène Roche, Elisabetta Visalberghi and Rebecca Warren: Primate archeology. In: Nature . Volume 60, 2009, pp. 339-344, doi: 10.1038 / nature08188
  2. ^ William C. McGrew and Robert A. Foley: Palaeoanthropology meets primatology. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 57, No. 4, 2009, pp. 335-336, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2009.07.002
  3. ^ Victoria Ling et al .: The origins of percussive technology: A smashing time in Cambridge. In: Evolutionary Anthropology. Volume 18, No. 2, 2009, pp. 48–49, doi: 10.1002 / evan.20197 , full text (PDF)
  4. ↑ Susana Carvalho et al .: Chaînes opératoires and resource-exploitation strategies in chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) nut cracking. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 55, No. 1, 2008, pp. 148-163, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2008.02.005
  5. ↑ Sileshi Semaw: The World's Oldest Stone Artefacts from Gona, Ethiopia: Their Implications for Understanding Stone Technology and Patterns of Human Evolution Between 2.6 - 1.5 Million Years Ago . In: Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 27, No. 12, 2000, pp. 1197–1214, doi: 10.1006 / jasc.1999.0592 , full text (PDF, 1.0 MB)
  6. ↑ Susana Carvalho et al .: Tool-composite reuse in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): archaeologically invisible steps in the technological evolution of early hominins? In: Animal Cognition. Volume 12 (Suppl. 1), 2009, pp. 103-114, doi: 10.1007 / s10071-009-0271-7 , full text
  7. ↑ Elisabetta Visalberghi et al .: Characteristics of Hammer Stones and Anvils Used by Wild Bearded Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus libidinosus) to Crack Open Palm Nuts. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 132, No. 3, 2007, pp. 426-444, doi: 10.1002 / ajpa.20546
  8. ↑ a b Julio Mercader et al .: Excavation of a Chimpanzee Stone Tool Site in the African Rainforest. In: Science . Volume 296, No. 5572, 2002, pp. 1452-1455, doi: 10.1126 / science.1070268
  9. ^ Julio Mercader et al .: 4300-year-old chimpanzee sites and the origins of percussive stone technology. In: PNAS . Volume 104, No. 9, 2007, pp. 3043-3048, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.0607909104
  10. ↑ Michael Haslam et al., Primate Archeology , p. 339
  11. ↑ Michael Haslam et al., Primate Archeology , p. 342
  12. ↑ Andrew Whiten: Archeology meets primate technology. In: Nature. Volume 498, 2013, pp. 303-305, doi: 10.1038 / 498303a
  13. ↑ Elisabetta Visalberghi et al .: Use of stone hammer tools and anvils by bearded capuchin monkeys over time and space: construction of an archeological record of tool use. In: Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 40, No. 8, 2013, pp. 3222-3232, doi: 10.1016 / j.jas.2013.03.021
  14. ↑ Thomas Wynn et al .: “An Ape's View of the Oldowan” Revisited. In: Evolutionary Anthropology. Volume 20, No. 5, 2011, pp. 181-197, doi: 10.1002 / evan.20323
  15. ↑ Alex Kasprak: 'Monkey archeology' hints at primate culture. In: New Scientist . Volume 230, No. 3078, 2016, p. 9; on newscientist.com from June 10, 2016 published under Monkey archeology reveals macaque's own Stone Age culture.