Sessão from primate archaeology to human evolution: apresentação de Bruno Magalhães e Ângela Araújo

Title: FROM THE FIRST TOOLS TO THE OLDOWAN: TECHNOLOGICAL LEAP OR GRADUAL PROCESS?
Authors: Bruno Magalhães, Ângela Araújo
Affiliation: Life sciences Department, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University
of Coimbra, Portugal

Abstract
The oldest direct evidence of the manufacture of lithic tools by our ancestors currently yields approximately 2.6/2.5 million years (m.y.) in the region of Gona (Ethiopia), with other records up to about 1.7 m.y. at Hadar (Ethiopia), Lokalalei, Kanjera South and Koobi Fora (Kenya), Ain Boucherit (Algeria) or Sterkfontein (South Africa). But are these really the records of the first effective uses of the instruments? Did the Oldowan industry (which already involves very complex cognitive processes associated with manufacture of lithic tools) mean a technological leap in human evolution or, on the other hand, was the result of a gradual evolutionary process that took place along several million years? Primate Archaeology has allowed an important approach to this issue. The study of some current nonhuman primates such as chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), orangutans(Pongo sp.) or the Thai long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) allow us to understand the use of very broad toolkits. Also, captive bonobos (Pan paniscus) appear to have cognitive abilities among the non-human primates that allow them to manufacture lithic tools. In the future, we foresee that the archaeological study of nonlithic tools currently used by non-human primates may provide a deeper understanding of the use and manufacture of perishable/organic tools, which rarely persists in the earliest archaeological records.