title: First GIS analysis of modern stone tools used by wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Bossou, Guinea, West Africa.
abstract: Stone tool use by wild chimpanzees of West Africa offers a unique opportunity to explore the evolutionary roots of technology during human evolution. However, detailed analyses of chimpanzee stone artifacts are still lacking, thus precluding a comparison with the earliest archaeological record. This paper presents the first systematic study of stone tools used by wild chimpanzees to crack open nuts in Bossou (Guinea-Conakry), and applies pioneering analytical techniques to such artifacts. Automatic morphometric GIS classification enabled to create maps of use wear over the stone tools (anvils, hammers, and hammers/ anvils), which were blind tested with GIS spatial analysis of damage patterns identified visually. Our analysis shows that chimpanzee stone tool use wear can be systematized and specific damage patterns discerned, allowing to discriminate between active and passive pounders in lithic assemblages. In summary, our results demonstrate the heuristic potential of combined suites of GIS techniques for the analysis of battered artifacts, and have enabled creating a referential framework of analysis in which wild chimpanzee battered tools can for the first time be directly compared to the early archaeological record.
authors: Laboratory of Digital Mapping and 3D Analysis, CENIEH, Burgos, Spain.
authors: Alfonso
authors: A
authors: Benito-Calvo
authors: Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., United States of America; Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behavior (ICArEHB), Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal.
authors: Susana
authors: S
authors: Carvalho
authors: Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors: Adrian
authors: A
authors: Arroyo
authors: Section Language and Intelligence, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan.
authors: Tetsuro
authors: T
authors: Matsuzawa
authors: Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors: Ignacio
authors: I
authors: de la Torre
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016477:Artifacts; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D016701:Guinea; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000502:physiology*; D053001:Tool Use Behavior / Q000502:physiology*