Sessão From primate archaeology to human evolution: apresentação de Susana Carvalho

Title: PRIMATE ARCHAEOLOGY: SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING OLD,SOMETHING BORROWED AND LOTS TO DO?
Author: Susana Carvalho
Affiliation: Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, UK; CIAS-Centre of Research in Anthropology and Health, University of Coimbra, Portugal; GEEvH- Group of Studies in Human Evolution, University of Coimbra, Portugal

Abstract
Current research examines chimpanzee stone tool-use to understand the development of
primate technology, and to refine models of early human evolution. Only West African
chimpanzees engage in nut-cracking in nature. Since 1976, systematic research in
Bossou, Guinea has focused on this elementary technology, both under natural conditions and in a field experimental setting (a so-called “outdoor laboratory”). In
2006, research begun, at Bossou, combining archaeological methods with direct and
indirect observations of individuals and their stone tools. These studies aimed to
elucidate, for the first time, the natural behavioral patterns and contexts that generate the artifacts. In scruinizing the variables that may have influenced the first emergence of technology, it remains unclear when, by whom and how the use and production of stone tools emerged. Archaeological data play a key role in this process to detect and to define the first technological transitions (and diagnostic features) regarding the: 1) use of stone tools (e.g. natural stones with sharp edges); 2) use of stone tools produced unintentionally via other percussive techniques (e.g. use of flakes produced accidentally during nut-cracking; reuse of a fractured anvil as a hammer); 3) intentional making and use of stone tools via non-knapping techniques (e.g. bash, pound); and 4) making of stone tools through goal-oriented knapping. Answers to these questions still are lacking and need to be sought. This paper will review results of the primate archaeological research initiated during the last decade, and will discuss why this new field is crucial to
start providing an evolutionary context for human technology.