Extensive Surveys of Chimpanzee Stone Tools: From the Telescope to the Magnifying Glass

Abstract

Surveys are procedures used to find and evaluate sites that may contain remnants of material cultures. The surface survey, a detailed prospection through field walking, is one of the essential techniques, indispensable when research is to begin in any unstudied environment. However, with few exceptions, surveys have not been extended to tropical rainforests. Since 2006, archeological surveys have been done in Bossou and Diécké forests at sites used by nonhuman primates with concentrations of stone tools currently in use to crack nuts. This work required the combination of direct and indirect methods for investigating individual behavior and, to explore, with reference to early hominins, issues of diversity and regionalism and the emergence of culture. Archeology examines temporal and spatial variables with accuracy comparable to that of a telescope, whereas this etho-archeological approach functions here like a magnifying glass. I was able to record the objects without interfering with the tool-users and to collect data on several sequences that are repeated over time. Archeological methods and equipment need to take in consideration two variables: (1) areas of activity to be recorded are still in use, that is, not abandoned; (2) tool-users may enter the site during data collection. Here we report the results concerning the spatial analyses of monitored nut-cracking sites and discuss the advantages and drawbacks of this interdisciplinary approach.