Bone tool use in termite foraging by early hominids and its impact on our understanding of early hominid behaviour
Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: Recent research conducted by Backwell and Backwell and d'Errico
has confirmed earlier suggestions by
Brain and Shipman that certain fossil bone
fragments found at the Swartkrans and
Sterkfontein sites were modified by early
hominids. These new studies have also extended
earlier research to the potential use of
these artefacts, and suggest that the unusual
tip modification found on most specimens is
not fromdigging for roots, bulbs and tubers as
was previously suggested. Rather, recent research
suggests that the unique wear patterns
were created during termite foraging in
epigeal mounds, where weathered bones
were used by hominids to dig into the colony.
The implications of this research are many.
These results are the first conclusive evidence
of tool use linked to a specific food resource at
this time depth. Furthermore, this research
seems to demonstrate the often predicted link
between living chimpanzee and early
hominid social and cultural adaptation. It is
also apparent that these tools formed part of
an implement-assisted, termite-foraging cultural
tradition that persisted unchanged in
southern Africa for over half a million years.
Source: South African Journal of Science
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W205435556