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"Stone tools"
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The manifold use of pounding stone tools by wild capuchin monkeys of Serra da Capivara National Park, Brazil
The use of pounding stone tools (PSTs) is a customary behaviour in several wild populations of capuchin monkeys; most of these monkeys use PSTs primarily to open hard palm nuts. Here, we describe the use of PSTs in two not previously studied groups of capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) in Serra da Capivara National Park (SCNP), northeastern Brazil, and compare them to other groups and populations. Capuchins from SCNP are one of the only known population that habitually use PSTs for several purposes other than nut processing, including cracking seeds and fruits, breaking and/or enlarging holes in tree trunks or rocks, and pulverizing pebbles. Moreover, they use PSTs sequentially with probe stick tools to access hidden prey. The average size of PSTs was larger than the average locally available stones, suggesting active choice. The two groups exhibited more diversity in the use of PSTs than any other known population to date.
Journal Article
Paleolithic human exploitation of plant foods during the last glacial maximum in North China
Three grinding stones from Shizitan Locality 14 (ca. 23,000-19,500 calendar years before present) in the middle Yellow River region were subjected to usewear and residue analyses to investigate human adaptation during the last glacial maximum (LGM) period, when resources were generally scarce and plant foods may have become increasingly important in the human diet. The results show that these tools were used to process various plants, including Triticeae and Paniceae grasses, Vigna beans, Dioscorea opposita yam, and Trichosanthes kirilowii snakegourd roots. Tubers were important food resources for Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, and Paniceae grasses were exploited about 12,000 y before their domestication. The long tradition of intensive exploitation of certain types of flora helped Paleolithic people understand the properties of these plants, including their medicinal uses, and eventually led to the plants' domestication. This study sheds light on the deep history of the broad spectrum subsistence strategy characteristic of late Pleistocene north China before the origins of agriculture in this region.
Journal Article
Macroscopic Chop Mark Identification on Archaeological Bone: An Experimental Study of Chipped Stone, Ground Stone, Copper, and Bronze Axe Heads on Bone
This paper presents a new macroscopic method for identifying chop marks on archaeological faunal assemblages and highlights the major differences in the morphology of chop marks created by stone and metal axes. The method provides macroscopic criteria that aid in the identification of both complete and incomplete chop mark types as well as the raw material of the axe. Experiments with modern stone (chipped and ground) and metal (copper and bronze) axes found that the degree of fragmentation within a chop mark is related to both the width and sharpness of the axe and can be classed on a scale from 1–5 using a variety of criteria. The experiments demonstrate that sharp chipped stone axes are fragile (often break upon impact) and do not create clean and well-defined chop marks. Ground stone axes are more durable but tend to create very fragmented chop marks without a clean cut (sheared) surface. Unalloyed copper metal axes can create sheared chopped surfaces; however, the relatively soft metal creates more crushing at the point of entry than bronze axes. In contrast, bronze axes are durable and create chop marks with exceptionally low rates of fragmentation resulting in a clean-cut sheared surface that extends into the bone for more than 3 mm. The method is applied to the faunal assemblage from the Early Bronze Age site of Göltepe, Turkey to determine whether the chop marks on bones were made by stone or metal axes at this early metal processing settlement. The results suggest that many of the chop marks were made by metal implements (e.g., axes). Hence, this method provides another means to monitor the adoption rates of new raw materials at a time when both metal and stone axes coexisted.
Journal Article
Stone tool production and utilization by bonobo-chimpanzees (Pan paniscus)
Using direct percussion, language-competent bonobo-chimpanzees Kanzi and Pan-Banisha produced a significantly wider variety of flint tool types than hitherto reported, and used them task-specifically to break wooden logs or to dig underground for food retrieval. For log breaking, small flakes were rotated drill-like or used as scrapers, whereas thick cortical flakes were used as axes or wedges, leaving consistent wear patterns along the glued slits, the weakest areas of the log. For digging underground, a variety of modified stone tools, as well as unmodified flint nodules, were used as shovels. Such tool production and utilization competencies reported here in Pan indicate that present-day Pan exhibits Homo-like technological competencies.
Journal Article
Lithic technologies in sedentary societies
\"Examining lithic technology in sedentary societies around the world and showcasing information that in-depth, cutting-edge, lithic analytical techniques provides. Highlighting important contributions to the field of lithics and how they can improve the study of sedentary Mesoamerican societies, as well as other ancient societies around the world\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
Exploring the link between plant minerals and wear formation on stone tools through experimentation: a view from the wetland
Reconstructing the transformation of plants based on use-wear is challenging due to the variety of technological choices available, the diverse range of plant species that could have been used, and the limited knowledge of how plant wear forms. The frequent appearance of ambiguous plant wear on stone tools from early and middle Holocene wetland contexts in Northwestern Europe provides an ideal case study to explore the complexity of plant wear formation. In this context, we present the outcomes of an exploratory experimental study which aimed to improve our understanding of plant wear formation resulting from processing activities of wetland plants. The program included the creation of a reference collection of plants available in. Particular attention was devoted to the effect of mineral plant elements, such as silica Northwestern European wetland ecosystems and a set of actualistic plant processing experiments minerals or calcium oxalates, on the development of plant polish. The elemental characterisation of wetland plants with scanning electron microscopy and the experimentally reproduced plant wear allowed us to draw comparisons between the plant composition and plant wear formation, and thus grasp the complexity of plant wear formation which depends on a large set of variables.
Journal Article