Primate Archaeology Evolves

Piel, AK (2017) Primate Archaeology Evolves. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 1. ISSN 2397-334X

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology Q Science > QL Zoology
Divisions:	Natural Sciences and Psychology (closed 31 Aug 19)
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
Date of acceptance:	19 July 2017
Date of first compliant Open Access:	21 March 2018
Date Deposited:	25 Sep 2017 11:57
Last Modified:	04 Sep 2021 11:11
DOI or ID number:	10.1038/s41559-017-0286-4
URI:	https://ljmu-9.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/7190

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