Archaeology of the Perishable

Major publication from Alejandra Pascual-Garrido and Katarina Almeida-Warren: Archaeology of the Perishable

Congratulations to Lab members Alejandra Pascual-Garrido and Katarina Almeida-Warren on the publication of Archaeology of the Perishable: Ecological Constraints and Cultural Variants in Chimpanzee Termite Fishing. Published in Current Anthropology, this milestone comparative piece on the newly emerging archaeology of the perishable reports on the application of archaeological methods to investigate raw material procurement for termite-fishing tools by three chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) populations in Tanzania: Gombe, Issa, and Mahale. With Archaeology of the Perishable, Pascual-Garrido and Almeida-Warren provide a new framework for reconstructing previously overlooked aspects of hominin behaviour, shedding light on the origins of technology and advancing the field beyond the current lithic bias to provide a more holistic approach to the study of technological origins. With commentaries from a number of senior researchers in the field, including our Lab Head Susana Carvalho, the article makes significant contributions and marks an exciting new avenue for further research.

Illustration of raw material sourcing for termite-fishing tools by wild chimpanzees, created by Luis da Silva, published in Pascual-Garrido & Almeida-Warren (2021)

Raw material sourcing for termite-fishing tools by wild chimpanzees: 1. Tool material sourcing from the source plant; 2. Raw material transport to the tool-use site (termite mound); 3. Tool manufacture and use; 4. Removal scars on source plants after chimpanzee tool material extraction (left: bark removal; right: twig removal). Illustration by Luis da Silva, published in Pascual-Garrido & Almeida-Warren (2021) and shared with permission from the authors

 

Katarina Almeida-Warren has shared an informative thread on Twitter which provides a great summary of the article - click the below Tweet to view the full thread on Twitter:

 

Citation: Pascual-Garrido & Almeida-Warren. 2021. Archaeology of the Perishable: Ecological Constraints and Cultural Variants in Chimpanzee Termite Fishing. Current Anthropologyhttps://doi.org/10.1086/713766.