![]() ![]() We present stone assemblages from three sites east of the Audrenisrou, <200 m apart from each other ( Fig. Numerous pits excavated throughout the Audrenisrou valley bottom document the effects of past forest fires that charred one or several trees, and at the sites of Noulo, Panda 100, and Sacoglotis B, a total of 15 14C assays performed on excavated charcoal samples ( Table 1) indicate that ( i) sedimentary deposition in this part of the landscape is older than 6,000 years, ( ii) the archaeological assemblage studied in this paper dates back 4,300 years, and ( iii) this assemblage is composed of relict materials deposited at different times over the course of >2,000 years. Small fires affecting isolated trees and caused by lightning are common occurrences throughout the Guineo–Congolian rainforest ( 13) leaving behind a ubiquitous record of former vegetation and forest composition as well as a source of datable material. Sedimentation is thicker than 4 m, alternating silty sands, muddy sands, and sandy silts that include patches of pebbles and cobbles. The archaeological sites studied here are located on a flat riverbank that gets regularly inundated. As part of the West African Craton, the region's geological configuration is dominated by igneous and metamorphic rocks of Precambrian origin ( 12). ![]() The research area is in a closed-canopy environment that receives ≈2,000 mm of annual precipitation ( 11). 1) are located at 5°N /7☎, and 200 m above sea level in the lowland rainforest of Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire, on the flood plain traversed by a small meandering black water stream called Audrenisrou within the chimpanzee territory known as “North Group.” Archaeological excavation took place over the course of two field seasons in 20, following standard paleolithic archaeology techniques. The sites of Noulo, Sacoglotis B, and Panda 100 ( Fig. The Archaeological Horizon: Age and Composition 9, 10), have arisen by imitation, or resulted from independent technological convergence. ![]() The chimpanzee assemblages are contemporaneous with the local Later Stone Age ( 8) thus, they represent a parallel “Chimpanzee Stone Age” that prompts us to ask whether percussive material culture could have been inherited from a common human–chimpanzee clade rather than invented by hominins (cf. This discovery speaks of true prehistoric great ape behavior that predates the onset of agriculture in this part of Africa ( 8). The archaeological evidence retrieved consists of behaviorally modified stones, dated by chronometric means to 4,300 years of age, whose attached food residue suggests chimpanzee manipulation, rather than natural causes or human intervention. To test the feasibility and scope of the new methodology, we conducted further work in Taï National Park, and investigated the existence of ancient chimpanzee sites and whether these sites would offer an answer to the long-standing question of the antiquity of nut-cracking behavior ( 6, 7). ![]() In 2002, the publication of recent buried remains of unintentionally fractured stone left behind by modern chimpanzees from Côte d'Ivoire outlined the potential of using archaeological methods in cultural primatological research and also identified the type of material assemblage that would allow archaeologists to detect and characterize ancient chimpanzee nut-cracking behavior. Tool use among modern wild ape populations, first reported in the early 19th century ( 1), has been documented throughout tropical Africa, and chimpanzees from West Africa are known for their use of stone tools for nut cracking ( 2 – 6). ![]()
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