4,300-Year-old chimpanzee sites and the origins of percussive stone technology

Archaeological research in the African rainforest reveals unexpected results in the search for the origins of hominoid technology. The ancient Panin sites from Côte d'Ivoire constitute the only evidence of prehistoric ape behavior known to date anywhere in the world. Recent archaeological work...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2007-02, Vol.104 (9), p.3043-3048
Main Authors:	Mercader, Julio, Barton, Huw, Gillespie, Jason, Harris, Jack, Kuhn, Steven, Tyler, Robert, Boesch, Christophe
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Animals Anthropology Archaeological sites Archaeology Behavior, Animal - physiology Biological Sciences Chimpanzees Cote d'Ivoire Feeding Behavior - physiology Fossils Historic artifacts Historic buildings & sites Monkeys & apes Nuts Pan troglodytes Primates Quartz Rain forests Rainforests Raw materials Social Sciences Starches Stone Stone age
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Summary:	Archaeological research in the African rainforest reveals unexpected results in the search for the origins of hominoid technology. The ancient Panin sites from Côte d'Ivoire constitute the only evidence of prehistoric ape behavior known to date anywhere in the world. Recent archaeological work has yielded behaviorally modified stones, dated by chronometric means to 4,300 years of age, lodging starch residue suggestive of prehistoric dietary practices by ancient chimpanzees. The "Chimpanzee Stone Age" pre-dates the advent of settled farming villages in this part of the African rainforest and suggests that percussive material culture could have been inherited from an common human-chimpanzee clade, rather than invented by hominins, or have arisen by imitation, or resulted from independent technological convergence.
ISSN:	0027-8424 1091-6490