American Journal of Biological Anthropology

Michael Haslam

Primate archaeology is the comparative study of material remains left by past and present primates, including humans. The field was created over a decade ago to promote better coordination between the long- term focus of those pursuing human origins research, and the typically modern focus of primatologists working with living creatures. Recently, Pascual-Garrido et al. (2023) outlined their vision of a third version of this field, or “Primate archaeology 3.0” as they name it. Their review is timely and valuable, emphasizing details of the primate social, spatial and organic worlds that are among the great strengths of having living behavioral models.

Animal Behaviour & Cognition

Michael Haslam

This study reports the novel manufacture and use of tools by wild European or common starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in mainland Orkney, Scotland. On two occasions over a period of ten days, multiple starlings picked off and applied pieces of discarded sheep’s fleece to the area under their wings and tails, in a manner similar to widespread ‘anting’ behavior. The birds’ goal is unknown, but it is likely that they are using the woolen tools for feather maintenance or another form of self-care. These observations reflect a previously unreported form of tool use in European starlings, which was rapid, repeated, and performed by several members of a flock.

Journal of Comparative Psychology 137:200–208

Michael Haslam

Humans anthropomorphize: as a result of our evolved ultrasociality, we see the world through person-colored glasses. In this review, I suggest that an interesting proportion of the extraordinary tool-using abilities shown by humans results from our mistakenly anthropomorphizing and forming social relationships with objects and devices. I introduce the term machination to describe this error, sketch an outline of the evidence for it, tie it to intrinsic reward for social interaction, and use it to help explain overimitation—itself posited as underpinning human technological complexity—by human children and adults. I also suggest pathways for testing the concept’s presence and limits, with an explicit focus on context-specific individual and temporal variation. I posit cognitive pressure from time constraints or opaque mechanisms as a cause for machination, with rapid, subconscious attribution of goals or desires to tools reducing cognitive overload. Machination holds promise for understanding how we create and use combinatorial technology, for clarifying differences with nonhuman animal tool use, and for examining the human fascination with objects.

Behaviour (doi: 10.1163/1568539X-bja10174)

Michael Haslam, Suchinda Malaivijitnond, Michael Gumert

We report anecdotal evidence for stone-tool-assisted hunting by a non-human primate. Wild Burmese long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea) in Laem Son National Park, Thailand, regularly consume crabs, processing them both with and without stone pounding tools. However, stone-tool-assisted capture of crab prey, prior to the processing for consumption, has yet to be reported. We observed a tool-using episode as part of the hunting process, and provide video evidence confirming Burmese long-tailed macaques as the first known non-human primate to hunt and subdue other animals with the aid of stone tools.

Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior (doi:10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1533-1)

Michael Haslam

A stone tool is a single, typically moveable piece of rock that is used by an animal to effect a change on its environment. The rock may be modified before use and may be used, either attached or unattached to other objects, as one part of a multi-component tool system.

American Journal of Primatology 82:e23156

Dorothy M Fragaszy, Sophie A Barton, Sreinick Keo, Rushi Patel, Patrícia Izar, Elisabetta Visalberghi, Michael Haslam

Wild bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) habitually use stone hammers to crack open palm nuts and seeds on anvils. This activity requires strength, balance, and precise movement of a large stone with respect to the item placed on an anvil. We explored how well young monkeys cope with these challenges by examining their behavior and the behavior of adults while they cracked palm nuts using a stone. Using video records, we compared actions of six juvenile (2–5 years) and six adult (7+ years) wild monkeys during their first 20 strikes with one unfamiliar ellipsoid, quartzite stone (540 g), and the outcomes of these strikes. Compared with adults, juveniles cracked fewer nuts, performed a more diverse set of exploratory actions, and less frequently placed one or both hands on top of the stone on the downward motion. Adults and juveniles displayed similar low frequencies of striking with a slanted trajectory, missing the nut, and losing control over the nut or stone after striking. These findings indicate that young monkeys control the trajectory of a stone adequately but that is not sufficient to crack nuts as effectively as adults do. Compared with juveniles, adults more quickly perceive how to grip the stone efficiently, and they are able to adjust their grip dynamically during the strike. Young monkeys develop expertise in the latter aspects of cracking nuts over the course of several years of regular practice, indicating that perceptual learning about these aspects of percussion occurs slowly. Juvenile and adult humans learning to use stones to crack nuts also master these features of cracking nuts very slowly.

Nature Ecology & Evolution 3:1034-1038

Tiago Falótico, Tomos Proffitt, Eduardo B Ottoni, Richard A Staff, Michael Haslam

The human archaeological record changes over time. Finding such change in other animals requires similar evidence, namely, a long-term sequence of material culture. Here, we apply archaeological excavation, dating and analytical tech- niques to a wild capuchin monkey (Sapajus libidinosus) site in Serra da Capivara National Park, Brazil. We identify monkey stone tools between 2,400 and 3,000years old and, on the basis of metric and damage patterns, demonstrate that capu- chin food processing changed between ~2,400 and 300 years ago, and between ~100 years ago and the present day. We present the first example of long-term tool-use variation out- side of the human lineage, and discuss possible mechanisms of extended behavioural change.

Scientific Reports 9:1-11

Michael Haslam, Jessica Fujii, Sarah Espinosa, Karl Mayer, Katherine Ralls, M Tim Tinker, Natalie Uomini

Wild sea otters (Enhydra lutris) are the only marine mammals that habitually use stones while foraging, using them to break open hard-shelled foods like marine snails and bivalves. However, the physical effects of this behavior on local environments are unknown. We show that sea otters pounding mussels on tidally emergent rocks leave distinct material traces, which can be recognized using methods from archaeology. We observed sea otters pounding mussels at the Bennett Slough Culverts site, California, USA, over a l0-year period. Sea otters repeatedly used the same rocks as anvils, which resulted in distinctive wear patterns on the rocks and accumulations of broken mussel shells, all fractured in a characteristic way, below them. Our results raise the potential for discovery of similar sea otter pounding sites in areas that no longer have resident sea otter populations.

American Journal of Primatology 81:e22958

Dorothy M Fragaszy, Kristen S Morrow, Rhianna Baldree, Emily Unholz, Patricia Izar, Elisabetta Visalberghi, Michael Haslam

Bearded capuchin monkeys crack nuts with naturally varying stone hammers, suggesting they may tune their grips and muscular forces to each stone. If so, they might use discrete actions on a stone before lifting and striking, and they would likely use these actions more frequently when the stone is larger and/or less familiar and/or when first initiating striking. We examined the behavior of (a) four monkeys (all proficient at cracking nuts) with two larger (1 kg) and two smaller (0.5 kg) stones, (b) 12 monkeys with one 1 kg stone, and (c) one monkey during its first 100 strikes with an initially unfamiliar 1 kg stone. Bearded capuchin monkeys used three discrete actions on the stone before striking, all more often with the larger stones than the smaller stones. We infer that the first discrete action (Spin) aided the monkey in determining where to grip the stone, the second (Flip) allowed it to position the stone on the anvil ergonomically before lifting it, and the third (Preparatory Lift) readied the monkey for the strenuous lifting action. The monkey that provided 100 strikes with one initially unfamiliar stone performed fewer Spins in later strikes but performed Flip and Preparatory Lift at consistent rates. The monkeys gripped the stone with both hands along the sides to lift it, but usually moved one or both hands to the top of the stone at the zenith of the lift for the downward strike. The findings highlight two new aspects of the capuchins’ nut-cracking: (a) Anticipatory actions with the stone before striking, especially when the stone is larger or unfamiliar, and when initiating striking and (b) shifting grips on the stone during a strike. We invite researchers to investigate if other taxa use anticipatory actions and shift their grips during percussive activity.

Behaviour 156:1083-1125

Michael D Gumert, Amanda Wei Yi Tan, Lydia V Luncz, Constance Ting Chua, Lars Kulik, Adam D Switzer, Michael Haslam, Atsushi Iriki, Suchinda Malaivijitnond

Stone-hammering behaviour customarily occurs in Burmese long-tailed macaques, Macaca fascicularis aurea, and in some Burmese-common longtail hybrids, M. f. aurea × M. f. fascicularis; however, it is not observed in common longtails. Facial pelage discriminates these subspecies, and hybrids express variable patterns. It was tested if stone hammering related to facial pelage in 48 hybrid longtails, across two phenotypes — hybrid-like (N=19) and common-like (N=29). In both phenotypes, tool users showed similar frequency and proficiency of stone hammering; however, common-like phenotypes showed significantly fewer tool users (42%) than hybrid-like phenotypes (76%). 111 Burmese longtails showed the highest prevalence of tool users (88%). Hybrid longtails living together in a shared social and ecological environment showed a significant difference in tool user prevalence based on facial pelage phenotype. This is consistent with inherited factors accounting for the difference, and thus could indicate Burmese longtails carry developmental biases for their tool behaviour.

Journal of Human Evolution 124:117-139

Tomos Proffitt, Michael Haslam, Julio Mercader, Christophe Boesch, Lydia V Luncz

Archaeological recovery of chimpanzee Panda oleosa nut cracking tools at the Panda 100 (P100) and Noulo sites in the Taï Forest, Côte d'Ivoire, showed that this behavior is over 4000 years old, making it the oldest known evidence of non-human tool use. In 2002, the first report on the lithic material from P100 was directly compared to early hominin stone tools, highlighting their similarities and proposing the name ‘Pandan’ for the chimpanzee material. Here we present an expanded and comprehensive technological, microscopic, and refit analysis of the late twentieth century lithic assemblage from P100. Our re-analysis provides new data and perspectives on the applicability of chimpanzee nut cracking tools to our understanding of the percussive behaviors of early hominins. We identify several new refit sets, including the longest (>17 m) hammerstone transport seen in the chimpanzee archaeological record. We provide detailed evidence of the fragmentation sequences of Panda nut hammerstones, and characterize the percussive damage on fragmented material from P100. Finally, we emphasize that the chimpanzee lithic archaeological record is dynamic, with the preservation of actual hammerstones being rare, and the preservation of small broken pieces more common. P100 – the first archaeological chimpanzee nut cracking lithic assemblage – provides a valuable comparative sample by which to identify past chimpanzee behavior elsewhere, as well as similar hominin percussive behavior in the Early Stone Age.

Plos One 13: e0189657

Fiona Stewart, Alex Piel, Lydia Luncz, Joanna Osborn, Yingying Li, Beatrice Hahn, Michael Haslam

Most of our knowledge of wild chimpanzee behaviour stems from fewer than 10 long-term field sites. This bias limits studies to a potentially unrepresentative set of communities known to show great behavioural diversity on small geographic scales. Here, we introduce a new genetic approach to bridge the gap between behavioural material evidence in unhabituated chimpanzees and genetic advances in the field of primatology. The use of DNA analyses has revolutionised archaeological and primatological fields, whereby extraction of DNA from non-invasively collected samples allows researchers to reconstruct behaviour without ever directly observing individuals. We used commercially available forensic DNA kits to show that termite-fishing by wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) leaves behind detectable chimpanzee DNA evidence on tools. We then quantified the recovered DNA, compared the yield to that from faecal samples, and performed an initial assessment of mitochondrial and microsatellite markers to identify individuals. From 49 termite-fishing tools from the Issa Valley research site in western Tanzania, we recovered an average of 52 pg/μl chimpanzee DNA, compared to 376.2 pg/μl in faecal DNA extracts. Mitochondrial DNA haplotypes could be assigned to 41 of 49 tools (84%). Twenty-six tool DNA extracts yielded >25 pg/μl DNA and were selected for microsatellite analyses; genotypes were determined with confidence for 18 tools. These tools were used by a minimum of 11 individuals across the study period and termite mounds. These results demonstrate the utility of bio-molecular techniques and a primate archaeology approach in non-invasive monitoring and behavioural reconstruction of unhabituated primate populations.

Royal Society Open Science 5:171904

Tomos Proffitt, Lydia Luncz, Suchinda Malaivijitnond, Michael Gumert, Magda Svensson, Michael Haslam

The discovery of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) nut-cracking by wild long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) is significant for the study of non-human primate and hominin percussive behaviour. Up until now, only West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) and modern human populations were known to use stone hammers to crack open this particular hard-shelled palm nut. The addition of non-habituated, wild macaques increases our comparative dataset of primate lithic percussive behaviour focused on this one plant species. Here, we present an initial description of hammerstones used by macaques to crack oil palm nuts, recovered from active nut-cracking locations on Yao Noi Island, Ao Phang Nga National Park, Thailand. We combine a techno-typological approach with microscopic and macroscopic use-wear analysis of percussive damage to characterize the percussive signature of macaque palm oil nut-cracking tools. These artefacts are characterized by a high degree of battering and crushing on most surfaces, which is visible at both macro and microscopic levels. The degree and extent of this damage is a consequence of a dynamic interplay between a number of factors, including anvil morphology and macaque percussive techniques. Beyond the behavioural importance of these artefacts, macaque nut-cracking represents a new target for primate archaeological investigations, and opens new opportunities for comparisons between tool using primate species and with early hominin percussive behaviour, for which nut-cracking has been frequently inferred.

Evolution of Primate Social Cognition (ed. Laura Desirèe Di Paolo, Fabio Di Vincenzo, Francesca De Petrillo) pp.199-209

Michael Haslam, Tiago Falótico, Lydia Luncz

Cultural differences between animal groups offer a means of tracing social relationships and cognition through time and across space. Where behaviours include tool use, we can observe the influence of available materials and role models on the development of tool-based activities. Here, we discuss the ways that we can study the social influence of tool-use behaviour in wild primates, focusing on two species that use durable stone tools: bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) and Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus). We concentrate on durable tools, as these provide an archaeologically recoverable record of activities. However, we also consider the influence of less durable tools when examining behavioural patterns in capuchins and chimpanzees. In order to study abstract concepts like culture and cognition, we identify socially learned behavioural diversity that is not influenced by environmental circumstances. This diversity, when compared among social units, allows us to detect cultural differences. Our bottom-up approach identifies some of the opportunities and challenges in studying social cognition through tool use in wild-ranging primates.

Nature Ecology & Evolution 1:1431-1437

Michael Haslam, R Adriana Hernandez-Aguilar, Tomos Proffitt, Adrian Arroyo, Tiago Falótico, Dorothy Fragaszy, Michael Gumert, John WK Harris, Michael A Huffman, Ammie K Kalan, Suchinda Malaivijitnond, Tetsuro Matsuzawa, William McGrew, Eduardo B Ottoni, Alejandra Pascual-Garrido, Alex Piel, Jill Pruetz, Caroline Schuppli, Fiona Stewart, Amanda Tan, Elisabetta Visalberghi, Lydia V Luncz

Since its inception, archaeology has traditionally focused exclusively on humans and our direct ancestors. However, recent years have seen archaeological techniques applied to material evidence left behind by non-human animals. Here, we review advances made by the most prominent field investigating past non-human tool use: primate archaeology. This field combines survey of wild primate activity areas with ethological observations, excavations and analyses that allow the reconstruction of past primate behaviour. Because the order Primates includes humans, new insights into the behavioural evolution of apes and monkeys also can be used to better interrogate the record of early tool use in our own, hominin, lineage. This work has recently doubled the set of primate lineages with an excavated archaeological record, adding Old World macaques and New World capuchin monkeys to chimpanzees and humans, and it has shown that tool selection and transport, and discrete site formation, are universal among wild stone-tool-using primates. It has also revealed that wild capuchins regularly break stone tools in a way that can make them difficult to distinguish from simple early hominin tools. Ultimately, this research opens up opportunities for the development of a broader animal archaeology, marking the end of archaeology’s anthropocentric era.

International Journal of Primatology 38:872-880

Lydia V Luncz, Magdalena S Svensson, Michael Haslam, Suchinda Malaivijitnond, Tomos Proffitt, Michael Gumert

Anthropogenic disturbances have a detrimental impact on the natural world; the vast expansion of palm oil monocultures is one of the most significant agricultural influences. Primates worldwide consequently have been affected by the loss of their natural ecosystems. Long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascilularis) in Southern Thailand have, however, learned to exploit oil palm nuts using stone tools. Using camera traps, we captured the stone tool behavior of one macaque group in Ao Phang-Nga National Park. Line transects placed throughout an abandoned oil palm plantation confirmed a high abundance of nut cracking sites. Long-tailed macaques previously have been observed using stone tools to harvest shellfish along the coasts of Thailand and Myanmar. The novel nut processing behavior indicates the successful transfer of existing lithic technology to a new food source. Such behavioral plasticity has been suggested to underlie cultural behavior in animals, suggesting that long-tailed macaques have potential to exhibit cultural tendencies. The use of tools to process oil palm nuts across multiple primate species allows direct comparisons between stone tool using nonhuman primates living in anthropogenic environments.

eLife 6:e23647

Lydia V Luncz, Amanda Tan, Michael Haslam, Lars Kulik, Tomos Proffitt, Suchinda Malaivijitnond, Michael Gumert

Tool use has allowed humans to become one of the most successful species. However, tool-assisted foraging has also pushed many of our prey species to extinction or endangerment, a technology-driven process thought to be uniquely human. Here, we demonstrate that tool-assisted foraging on shellfish by long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park, Thailand, reduces prey size and prey abundance, with more pronounced effects where the macaque population size is larger. We compared availability, sizes and maturation stages of shellfish between two adjacent islands inhabited by different-sized macaque populations and demonstrate potential effects on the prey reproductive biology. We provide evidence that once technological macaques reach a large enough group size, they enter a feedback loop – driving shellfish prey size down with attendant changes in the tool sizes used by the monkeys. If this pattern continues, prey populations could be reduced to a point where tool-assisted foraging is no longer beneficial to the macaques, which in return may lessen or extinguish the remarkable foraging technology employed by these primates.

American Journal of Primatology 79:e22629

Tiago Falótico, Noemi Spagnoletti, Michael Haslam, Lydia V Luncz, Suchinda Malaivijitnond, Michael Gumert

Nut-cracking is shared by all non-human primate taxa that are known to habitually use percussive stone tools in the wild: robust capuchins (Sapajus spp.), western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), and Burmese long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea). Despite opportunistically processing nuts, Burmese long-tailed macaques predominantly use stone tools to process mollusks in coastal environments. Here, we present the first comprehensive survey of sea almond (Terminalia catappa) nut-cracking sites created by macaques. We mapped T. catappa trees and nut-cracking sites that we encountered along the intertidal zone and forest border on the coasts of Piak Nam Yai Island, Thailand. For each nut-cracking site, we measured the physical properties (i.e., size, weight, use-wear) of hammer stones and anvils. We found that T. catappa trees and nut-cracking sites primarily occurred on the western coast facing the open sea, and cracking sites clusters around the trees. We confirmed previous results that nut cracking tools are among the heaviest tools used by long-tailed macaques; however, we found our sample of T. catappa stone tools lighter than a previously collected sea almond sample that, unlike our sample, was collected immediately after use within the intertidal zone. The difference was likely the result of tidal influences on tool-use sites. We also found that tool accumulations above the intertidal region do not resemble those within them, possibly leading to incomplete assessments of macaque stone tools through archaeological techniques that would use these durable sites.

Beyond Stones and More Stones (ed. Ravi Korisettar) pp.117-149

Michael Haslam, Stephen Oppenheimer, Ravi Korisettar

The Indian subcontinent was one of the first major geographic areas occupied by anatomically modern humans (AMH), following south coastal dispersal from our African homeland sometime in the Late Pleistocene. Genetic reconstructions suggest that between about 45 and 20 thousand years ago (ka), the majority of Homo sapiens may have lived in India and Southeast Asia.4 Understanding this dispersal process more clearly would therefore help us resolve critical questions over: (i) the timing of human dispersal to other parts of the globe (including Europe and Australasia); (ii) the technologies that accompanied the dispersing groups, and subsequent cultural evolution; (iii) the environments that were initially favoured, adapted to and modified by these groups; and (iv) the physical characteristics of the dispersing humans, including anatomical and cognitive configurations.

Folia Primatologica 87:392-397

Tiago Falótico, Lydia V Luncz, Magdalena S Svensson, Michael Haslam

Wild capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) at Serra da Capivara National Park, Brazil, regularly use stone tools to break open cashew nuts (Anacardium spp.). Here we examine 2 approaches used by the capuchins to position the kidney-shaped cashew nuts on an anvil before striking with a stone tool. Lateral positioning involves placing the nut on its flatter, more stable side, therefore requiring less attention from the monkey during placement. However, the less stable and never previously described arched position, in which the nut is balanced with its curved side uppermost, requires less force to crack the outer shell. We observed cashew nut cracking in a field experimental setting. Only 6 of 20 adults, of both sexes, were observed to deliberately place cashew nuts in an arched position, which may indicate that the technique requires time and experience to learn. We also found that use of the arched position with dry nuts, but not fresh, required, in 63% of the time, an initial processing to remove one of the cashew nut lobes, creating a more stable base for the arch. This relatively rare behaviour appears to have a complex ontogeny, but further studies are required to establish the extent to which social learning is involved.

Current Biology 26:R521-R522

Michael Haslam, Lydia V Luncz, Richard A Staff, Fiona Bradshaw, Eduardo B Ottoni, Tiago Falótico

Stone tools reveal worldwide innovations in human behaviour over the past three million years. However, the only archaeological report of pre-modern non-human animal tool use comes from three Western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) sites in Côte d’Ivoire, aged between 4.3 and 1.3 thousand years ago (kya). This anthropocentrism limits our comparative insight into the emergence and development of technology, weakening our evolutionary models. Here, we apply archaeological techniques to a distinctive stone tool assemblage created by a non-human animal in the New World, the Brazilian bearded capuchin monkey (Sapajus libidinosus). Wild capuchins at Serra da Capivara National Park (SCNP) use stones to pound open defended food, including locally indigenous cashew nuts, and we demonstrate that this activity dates back at least 600 to 700 years. Capuchin stone hammers and anvils are therefore the oldest non-human tools known outside of Africa, opening up to scientific scrutiny questions on the origins and spread of tool use in New World monkeys, and the mechanisms — social, ecological and cognitive — that support primate technological evolution.

Nature 539:85-88

Tomos Proffitt, Lydia V Luncz, Tiago Falótico, Eduardo B Ottoni, Ignacio de la Torre, Michael Haslam

Our understanding of the emergence of technology shapes how we view the origins of humanity. Sharp-edged stone flakes, struck from larger cores, are the primary evidence for the earliest stone technology. Here we show that wild bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) in Brazil deliberately break stones, unintentionally producing recurrent, conchoidally fractured, sharp-edged flakes and cores that have the characteristics and morphology of intentionally produced hominin tools. The production of archaeologically visible cores and flakes is therefore no longer unique to the human lineage, providing a comparative perspective on the emergence of lithic technology. This discovery adds an additional dimension to interpretations of the human Palaeolithic record, the possible function of early stone tools, and the cognitive requirements for the emergence of stone flaking.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B 283:20161607

Lydia V Luncz, Tomos Proffitt, Lars Kulik, Michael Haslam, Roman M Wittig

Stone tool transport leaves long-lasting behavioural evidence in the landscape. However, it remains unknown how large-scale patterns of stone distribution emerge through undirected, short-term transport behaviours. One of the longest studied groups of stone-tool-using primates are the chimpanzees of the Taï National Park in Ivory Coast, West Africa. Using hammerstones left behind at chimpanzee Panda nut-cracking sites, we tested for a distance-decay effect, in which the weight of material decreases with increasing distance from raw material sources. We found that this effect exists over a range of more than 2 km, despite the fact that observed, short-term tool transport does not appear to involve deliberate movements away from raw material sources. Tools from the millennia-old Noulo site in the Taï forest fit the same pattern. The fact that chimpanzees show both complex short-term behavioural planning, and yet produce a landscape-wide pattern over the long term, raises the question of whether similar processes operate within other stone-tool-using primates, including hominins. Where hominin landscapes have discrete material sources, a distance-decay effect, and increasing use of stone materials away from sources, the Taï chimpanzees provide a relevant analogy for understanding the formation of those landscapes.

Scientific Reports 6:1-9

Lydia V Luncz, Tiago Falótico, Alejandra Pascual-Garrido, Clara Corat, Hannah Mosley, Michael Haslam

Animals foraging in their natural environments need to be proficient at recognizing and responding to changes in food targets that affect accessibility or pose a risk. Wild bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) use stone tools to access a variety of nut species, including otherwise inaccessible foods. This study tests whether wild capuchins from Serra da Capivara National Park in Brazil adjust their tool selection when processing cashew (Anacardium spp.) nuts. During the ripening process of cashew nuts, the amount of caustic defensive substance in the nut mesocarp decreases. We conducted field experiments to test whether capuchins adapt their stone hammer selection to changing properties of the target nut, using stones of different weights and two maturation stages of cashew nuts. The results show that although fresh nuts are easier to crack, capuchin monkeys used larger stone tools to open them, which may help the monkeys avoid contact with the caustic hazard in fresh nuts. We demonstrate that capuchin monkeys are actively able to distinguish between the maturation stages within one nut species, and to adapt their foraging behaviour accordingly.

Journal of Human Evolution 96:134-138

Michael Haslam, Lydia Luncz, Alejandra Pascual-Garrido, Tiago Falótico, Suchinda Malaivijitnond, Michael Gumert

Here, we present the first report on an archaeologically excavated Old World monkey tool use site, which was created by wild Burmese long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea) during shellfish-processing activities in coastal Thailand. These macaques use stone and shell pounding tools to access a wide variety of coastal and inter-tidal resources, including shellfish, crabs and nuts, and previous work has demonstrated that use-wear on the stone tools permits reconstruction of past macaque activities. Uncovering the history of this foraging behaviour opens up opportunities to study its evolution within the macaque lineage and, more broadly, to retrieve comparative data for researchers studying human and primate coastal exploitation.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 7:408-413

Michael Haslam, Alejandra Pascual-Garrido, Suchinda Malaivijitnond, Michael Gumert

Archaeologists have used stone transport as a proxy to understand a variety of cognitive, logistical and social problems faced by human ancestors. In the same way, tool transport in our close relatives, non-human primates, has been seen as an important indicator of material selection proclivities, and as a contributing factor to the formation of activity sites as part of niche construction processes. Non-human primate transport behaviour also assists in framing evolutionary scenarios for the emergence of stone tool use in the hominin lineage. Here, we present the first study of directly observed stone tool transport in wild and unhabituated Burmese long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea) in Thailand. These macaques were observed during intertidal foraging activities, during which they pound open hard-shelled molluscs with stone tools. We recorded 2449 transport bouts, when a long-tailed macaque carried a stone tool from one prey target to the next, and found that on average the same tool was used to sequentially consume nine prey items in each foraging episode. The maximum number of prey items consumed in a single episode was 63. We found that tools used to open sessile oysters typically were used to consume more prey per episode than those employed on motile prey, and females transported tools further than males. Heavier tools (> 200 g) were rarely transported more than a few metres, but the longest transport distance was over 87 m. Importantly for primate archaeological analysis of macaque tool use sites, we found that the median transport distance was 0.5 m, meaning that tools are very often used in the immediate vicinity of the place they were collected by a macaque.

Quaternary International 405:70-77

Hannah Mosley, Michael Haslam

The concept of extended or distributed cognition has been present in archaeology for some time, yet despite its inclusion of non-human hominin ancestors, it has remained distinctly anthropocentric in nature. Here, we suggest that the same concept may also be used to independently describe and interpret non-human animals within their own social and material networks. We illustrate this suggestion with examples from the tool use behaviour of wild monkeys and chimpanzees. Non-human primate social groups develop bodies of traditional knowledge, and we consider whether idiosyncratic expression of such knowledge may be viewed in terms of an individual's constructed social identity. At a micro-level, the performance of an individual tool use technique may be analogous to the idea of ‘personhood’ found in anthropological holistic or perspectivist theory; at a macro-level the physical and social distribution of primate technology is amenable to interpretation as an example of extended or distributed cognition. We conclude that combined consideration of extended cognition and niche construction offers a promising means for interpreting the material residues of non-human primate behaviour.

Primates 57:141-147

Amanda Tan, Lydia Luncz, Michael Haslam, Suchinda Malaivijitnond, Michael D Gumert

Complex food-processing techniques by gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans have allowed comparisons of complex hierarchical cognition between great apes and humans. Here, we analyse preliminary observations of free-ranging long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) (n = 3) in Thailand processing Opuntia sp. cactus fruits. From our observations, we suggest that there is potential to extend the analyses of hierarchical cognition to Old World monkeys. We found that the macaques used six behavioural sequences to obtain Opuntia fruits, remove irritant hairs from the skin of the fruits, and break open, and consume the fruits, each a unique combination of 17 action elements. Removing irritant hairs involved abrading fruits on a sand or rock substrate, and washing fruit in water. The behavioural sequences that macaques use to process Opuntia potentially show features of hierarchical organisation described in the leaf-processing behaviours of great apes. Our observations highlight the need for closer study of complex food-processing behaviour in monkeys to better understand the organisational capacities involved.

Primates 56:211-214

Michael Haslam, Tiago Falótico

We report the first observation of probe tool use by a wild adult female bearded capuchin (Sapajus libidniosus), at Serra da Capivara National Park (SCNP), Brazil. This individual used several stick tools and one grass stem to probe her nostrils, usually triggering a sneeze reaction, and also used stick tools to probe her teeth or gum. Both of these behaviours were accompanied by inspection and licking of the tool following use. We have termed these self-directed actions nasal probe and toothpick, and neither has been previously reported in wild capuchins. While stick tool use is common among foraging male capuchins at SCNP, the novel and at present idiosyncratic activities performed by the female monkey add to the known behavioural repertoire for this species.

Lithic Technological Systems and Evolutionary Theory (ed. N. Goodale & W. Andrefsky) pp. 117-138

Chris Clarkson, Michael Haslam, Clair Harris

Utilized and retouched stone flakes are found in varying proportions in all lithic assemblages, with some artifacts exhibiting signs of hafting and extensive resharpening. Various theories offer explanations for patterns in lithic reduction, hafting, curation, and discard, including the abundance, proximity, and opportunities to acquire replacement raw material, and past attempts to increase functional efficiency. This chapter asks whether differences in tool efficiency occur for unretouched, retouched, and unretouched hafted artifacts for scraping wood after manufacture and maintenance costs are factored in.

American Journal of Primatology 76:910-918

Michael Haslam

The last common ancestor (LCA) shared by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (P. paniscus) was an Early Pleistocene African ape, which, based on the behavior of modern chimpanzees, may be assumed to be a tool-using animal. However, the character of tool use in the Pan lineage prior to the 20th century is largely unknown. Here, I use available data on wild bonobo tool use and emerging molecular estimates of demography during Pan evolution to hypothesise the plausible tool use behavior of the bonobo-chimpanzee LCA (or “Pancestor”) at the start of the Pleistocene, over 2 million years ago. This method indicates that the common ancestor of living Pan apes likely used plant tools for probing, sponging, and display, but it did not use stone tools. Instead, stone tool use appears to have been independently invented by Western African chimpanzees (P. t. verus) during the Middle Pleistocene in the region of modern Liberia-Ivory Coast-Guinea, possibly as recently as 200,000–150,000 years ago. If this is the case, then the LCA of humans and chimpanzees likely also did not use stone tools, and this trait probably first emerged among hominins in Pliocene East Africa. This review also suggests that the consistently higher population sizes of Central African chimpanzees (P. t. troglodytes) over the past million years may have contributed to the increased complexity of wild tool use seen in this sub-species today.

Archaeology of African Plant Use (ed. C. Stevens, S. Nixon, M.A. Murray, D. Fuller) pp.25-35

Michael Haslam

Recognition is growing that valuable comparative data on human evolution may be gained through an examination of the archaeological remains left by nonhuman species, including the closely related and technology-proficient chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and extending to more distant members of the human family tree. Because much of the justification for extending archaeology to nonhuman primates comes from plant processing and plant-based technologies of species such as chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys, it is therefore necessary to explore the extent to which the activities of such animals can be detected and interpreted in the archaeobotanical record. This perspective is important not just for understanding the intraspecies chronological development of nonhuman primate plant use but also because it bears on discussions of factors such as cooking and nonlithic tool use in human evolution. Because Africa was the primary centre for the evolution of both humanity and our closest primate relatives, African archaeobotanists have a central role to play in exploring primate archaeobotany.

PLoS One 9:e111273

Michael Haslam, Raphael Moura Cardoso, Elisabetta Visalberghi, Dorothy Fragaszy

We recorded the damage that wild bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) caused to a sandstone anvil during pounding stone tool use, in an experimental setting. The anvil was undamaged when set up at the Fazenda Boa Vista (FBV) field laboratory in Piauí, Brazil, and subsequently the monkeys indirectly created a series of pits and destroyed the anvil surface by cracking palm nuts on it. We measured the size and rate of pit formation, and recorded when adult and immature monkeys removed loose material from the anvil surface. We found that new pits were formed with approximately every 10 nuts cracked, (corresponding to an average of 38 strikes with a stone tool), and that adult males were the primary initiators of new pit positions on the anvil. Whole nuts were preferentially placed within pits for cracking, and partially-broken nuts outside the established pits. Visible anvil damage was rapid, occurring within a day of the anvil's introduction to the field laboratory. Destruction of the anvil through use has continued for three years since the experiment, resulting in both a pitted surface and a surrounding archaeological debris field that replicate features seen at natural FBV anvils.

PLoS One 9:e113856

Matthew V Caruana, Susana Carvalho, David R Braun, Darya Presnyakova, Michael Haslam, Will Archer, Rene Bobe, John WK Harris

Percussive technology continues to play an increasingly important role in understanding the evolution of tool use. Comparing the archaeological record with extractive foraging behaviors in nonhuman primates has focused on percussive implements as a key to investigating the origins of lithic technology. Despite this, archaeological approaches towards percussive tools have been obscured by a lack of standardized methodologies. Central to this issue have been the use of qualitative, non-diagnostic techniques to identify percussive tools from archaeological contexts. Here we describe a new morphometric method for distinguishing anthropogenically-generated damage patterns on percussive tools from naturally damaged river cobbles. We employ a geomatic approach through the use of three-dimensional scanning and geographical information systems software to statistically quantify the identification process in percussive technology research. This will strengthen current technological analyses of percussive tools in archaeological frameworks and open new avenues for translating behavioral inferences of early hominins from percussive damage patterns.

Journal of Archaeological Science 49:90-104

Alison Crowther, Michael Haslam, Nikki Oakden, Dale Walde, Julio Mercader

Ancient starch analysis is an important methodology for researching ancient ecology, plant use, diet, and tool function; particularly in the deep past when other proxies may not survive. Establishing the authenticity of ancient starch is therefore a major concern for researchers. Despite decades of archaeological application, there are currently no empirically-tested procedures for systematically assessing and reducing intra-laboratory contamination. At the Universities of Oxford and Calgary, we have tested laboratory consumables, airborne contaminants, and decontamination techniques (oxidisation, boiling, autoclaving, torching) to establish contamination sources, types and quantities, as well as the most effective methods of destroying them. In our laboratories, we found that (i) contaminant starches represent a restricted range of types, (ii) many commonly used consumables including non-powdered gloves and Calgon are starch-rich, (iii) passive slide traps often used to test for airborne contaminants generate unreliable proxies and unacceptably low statistical confidence, and (iv) decontamination procedures using weak acids and bleach are largely ineffective. This collaborative study has allowed us to identify and reduce the risk of contamination and to develop better internal authenticity criteria for future ancient starch studies conducted in our laboratories.

Quaternary Geochronology 21:104-105

Michael Haslam

Mark et al. (2013) recently proposed a new age for the Sumatran Youngest Toba Tuff (YTT) super-eruption of 75±0.9 ka, based on 40 Ar/39 Ar dating of proximal and distal tephra deposits. This age falls within previously measured ranges for the eruption and is not under dispute here. However, the authors' interpretation of the palaeoclimatic implications of this finding suffers from fundamental errors.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 368:20120421

Michael Haslam

Animals in captive or laboratory settings may outperform wild animals of the same species in both frequency and diversity of tool use, a phenomenon here termed ‘captivity bias’. Although speculative at this stage, a logical conclusion from this concept is that animals whose tool-use behaviour is observed solely under natural conditions may be judged cognitively or physically inferior than if they had also been tested or observed under controlled captive conditions. In turn, this situation creates a potential problem for studies of the behaviour of extinct members of the human family tree—the hominins—as hominin cognitive abilities are often judged on material evidence of tool-use behaviour left in the archaeological record. In this review, potential factors contributing to captivity bias in primates (including increased contact between individuals engaged in tool use, guidance or shaping of tool-use behaviour by other tool-users and increased free time and energy) are identified and assessed for their possible effects on the behaviour of the Late Pleistocene hominin Homo floresiensis. The captivity bias concept provides one way to uncouple hominin tool use from cognition, by considering hominins as subject to the same adaptive influences as other tool-using animals.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 368:20120408

Dora Biro, Michael Haslam, Christian Rutz

Tool use is a vital component of the human behavioural repertoire. The benefits of tool use have often been assumed to be self-evident: by extending control over our environment, we have increased energetic returns and buffered ourselves from potentially harmful influences. In recent decades, however, the study of tool use in both humans and non-human animals has expanded the way we think about the role of tools in the natural world. This Theme Issue is aimed at bringing together this developing body of knowledge, gathered across multiple species and from multiple research perspectives, to chart the wider evolutionary context of this phylogenetically rare behaviour.

PLoS One 8:e72872

Michael Haslam, Michael D Gumert, Dora Biro, Susana Carvalho, Suchinda Malaivijitnond

Burmese long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea) are one of a limited number of wild animal species to use stone tools, with their tool use focused on pounding shelled marine invertebrates foraged from intertidal habitats. These monkeys exhibit two main styles of tool use: axe hammering of oysters, and pound hammering of unattached encased foods. In this study, we examined macroscopic use-wear patterns on a sample of 60 wild macaque stone tools from Piak Nam Yai Island, Thailand, that had been collected following behavioural observation, in order to (i) quantify the wear patterns in terms of the types and distribution of use-damage on the stones, and (ii) develop a Use-Action Index (UAI) to differentiate axe hammers from pound hammers by wear patterns alone. We used the intensity of crushing damage on differing surface zones of the stones, as well as stone weight, to produce a UAI that had 92% concordance when compared to how the stones had been used by macaques, as observed independently prior to collection. Our study is the first to demonstrate that quantitative archaeological use-wear techniques can accurately reconstruct the behavioural histories of non-human primate stone tools.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110:E3047-E3047

Richard G Roberts, Michael Storey, Michael Haslam

Lane et al. recovered microscopic glass shards (cryptotephra) from a thin layer of sediment deposited in Lake Malawi and chemically characterized them as volcanic ash (Youngest Toba Tuff, YTT) from the Toba “supereruption” in Sumatra. The authors found no evidence of significant climate change at multidecadal to millennial timescales in the sedimentary record, and in their report conclude that the eruption distributed ash much more widely than previously documented but did not trigger a volcanic winter or human bottleneck in East Africa. Although the YTT event had limited impact on ecosystems around Lake Malawi, we think Lane et al. are premature in extrapolating their environmental findings to all of East Africa, and we dispute their contention that “the most robust age for the YTT” is 75.0 ± 0.9 ka.

Journal of Archaeological Science 40:3222-3232

Elisabetta Visalberghi, Michael Haslam, Noemi Spagnoletti, Dorothy Fragaszy

Wild bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) in the cerrado (seasonally dry savannah-like region) of Brazil routinely crack open several species of palm nuts and other hard encased fruits and seeds on level surfaces (anvils) using stones as hammers. At our field site, their nut cracking activity leaves enduring diagnostic physical remains: distinctive shallow depressions (pits) on the surface of the anvil, and cracked shells and stone hammer(s) on or next to the anvil. A monthly survey of the physical remains of percussive tool use at 58 anvils in our study site over a 36-month period revealed repeated use, seasonal consistency, temporal variation, landscape-scale patterning, appearance of new hammers and transport of existing hammers to new anvil sites. Artefactual evidence of the temporal and spatial pattern of tool use collected in the survey is in correspondence with concurrent direct observation of monkeys using and transporting tools at this site. Shell fragments endure for years above ground, suggesting that they may also endure in the strata around anvil sites. The bearded capuchins provide an opportunity to study the construction of percussive tool sites suitable for archeological investigation concurrently with the behavior responsible for the construction of these sites. We suggest several lines of inquiry into tool sites created by capuchin monkeys that may be useful to interpret the archeological evidence of percussive tool use in early humans. Archeologists should be aware that transported stone materials and artificial durable landscape features may be the result of activity by non-human animals.

Antiquity 86:299-315

Michael Haslam

Using the behaviour of related primates to provide analogies for early humans has a long tradition in archaeology. But these primates too have a past, and experienced particular contexts for the adoption of tool-using. In this pioneering review, the author explores distinctions among chimpanzees in ecology, diet and innovation, sets a wider agenda for a prehistory of primates and explains how archaeology could serve it.

Quaternary International 258:148-164

Michael Haslam, Chris Clarkson, Richard G Roberts, Janardhana Bora, Ravi Korisettar, Peter Ditchfield, Allan R. Chivas, Clair Harris, Victoria Smith, Anna Oh, Sanjay Eksambekar

This paper reports further evidence from an archaeological occupation surface in southern India that was buried by tephra from the Toba volcanic super-eruption ca. 74,000 years ago. The open-air site, designated Jwalapuram Locality 22 and located in the Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh, preserves more than 1600 stone artefacts assigned to the Indian Middle Palaeolithic. Sedimentological, isotopic and lithic data along with optically stimulated luminescence ages confirm the site as occupied closely prior to the eruption. The hominin taxon responsible for creating the site is not known, but the stone tool evidence is most consistent with contemporaneous Homo sapiens technologies in Africa and to the east of South Asia. The findings have relevance for understanding Indian Middle Palaeolithic technology, and for identifying the behavioural and environmental adaptations of the hominin group(s) that occupied India when Toba erupted.

Quaternary International 258:191-199

Michael Haslam, Clair Harris, Chris Clarkson, JN Pal, Ceri Shipton, Alison Crowther, Jinu Koshy, Janardhana Bora, Peter Ditchfield, Harindra Prasad Ram, Kathryn Price, AK Dubey

This paper presents the first report on Dhaba, a newly discovered locality in the Middle Son Valley, north-central India. The locality preserves Acheulean, Middle Palaeolithic and microlithic artefacts within a Late Quaternary stratified alluvial sequence. Initial information is provided on the sedimentary sequence, archaeological survey and excavation, topographical mapping, and lithic technological analysis of Dhaba 1, the largest excavation at the locality. The assemblage is situated within the regional geomorphological and hominin occupation sequences, noting that while Dhaba lies within a kilometre of Toba tephra deposits, no temporal link between the tephra and the artefact-bearing sediments is possible at present. Dhaba currently provides the only known extensive occurrence of Middle Palaeolithic artefacts in the Middle Son Valley that lacks handaxes.

Quaternary Research 75:670-682

Michael Haslam, Richard G Roberts, Ceri Shipton, JN Pal, Jacqueline L Fenwick, Peter Ditchfield, AK Dubey, MC Gupta

Single-grain optically stimulated luminescence dating was applied to Late Quaternary sediments at two sites in the Middle Son Valley, Madhya Pradesh, India. Designated Bamburi 1 and Patpara, these sites contain Late Acheulean stone tool assemblages, which we associate with non-modern hominins. Age determinations of 140–120 ka place the formation of these sites at around the Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 6–5 transition, placing them among the youngest Acheulean sites in the world. We present here the geochronology and sedimentological setting of these sites, and consider potential implications of Late Pleistocene archaic habitation in north-central India for the initial dispersal of modern humans across South Asia.

Quaternary Science Reviews 30:1819-1824

Christine Lane, Michael Haslam, Peter Ditchfield, Victoria Smith, Ravi Korisettar

The ∼74 ka BP Youngest Toba Tuff (YTT), from the largest known Quaternary volcanic eruption, has been found for the first time as a non-visible (crypto-) tephra layer within the Billa Surgam caves, southern India. The occurrence of the YTT layer in Charnel House Cave provides the first calendrical age estimate for this much debated Pleistocene faunal sequence and demonstrates the first successful application of cryptotephrochronology within a cave sequence. The YTT layer lies ∼50 cm below a major sedimentological change, which is related to global cooling around the MIS 5 to MIS 4 transition. Using this isochronous event layer the Billa Surgam Cave record can be directly correlated with other archaeological sites in peninsular India and palaeoenvironmental archives across southern Asia.

Journal of Archaeological Science 37:3010-3021

Metin I Eren, Adam Durant, Christina Neudorf, Michael Haslam, et al.

This paper presents the motivation, procedures, and results of an experiment that examines short episodes of animal trampling in dry and water saturated substrates in South India. While horizontal artifact displacement was similar to that modeled by other trampling experiments, vertical artifact displacement in water saturated substrates was greater than any reported experiment to date. The toolstone used in this experiment, a silicious limestone, exhibited minimal damage after trampling. Artifact inclination patterning appeared to be a potentially diagnostic middle-range marker of trampling in water saturated substrates. Given the abundant number of Paleolithic sites that are located on flat, open surfaces near water-bodies, or experience monsoonal climatic regimes, we propose that future excavations should measure artifact inclination on a regular basis.

Nature 460:339-344

Michael Haslam, Adriana Hernandez-Aguilar, Victoria Ling, Susana Carvalho, Ignacio De La Torre, April DeStefano, Andrew Du, Bruce Hardy, Jack Harris, Linda Marchant, Tetsuro Matsuzawa, William McGrew, Julio Mercader, Rafael Mora, Hélene Roche, Elisabetta Visalberghi, Rebecca Warren

All modern humans use tools to overcome limitations of our anatomy and to make difficult tasks easier. However, if tool use is such an advantage, we may ask why it is not evolved to the same degree in other species. To answer this question, we need to bring a long-term perspective to the material record of other members of our own order, the Primates.

Antiquity 83:326-348

Chris Clarkson, Ravi Korisettar, Michael Haslam, Alison Crowther, Peter Ditchfıeld, Dorian Fuller, Preston Miracle, Clair Harris, Kate Connell, Hannah James, Jinu Koshy

The Jwalapuram Locality 9 rockshelter in southern India dates back to 35 000 years ago and it is emerging as one of the key sites for documenting human activity and behaviour in South Asia. The excavated assemblage includes a proliferation of lithic artefacts, beads, worked bone and fragments of a human cranium. The industry is microlithic in character, establishing Jwalapuram 9 as one of the oldest and most important sites of its kind in South Asia.

Asian Perspectives 47:405-428

Michael Haslam, Jolie Liston

In the past decade, archaeological research in Palau has undergone a rapid acceleration in terms of both the quantity of research conducted and the variety of archaeological questions addressed. As a result, recent modeling of initial occupation; cultural chronologies; and settlement patterns have dramatically advanced our understanding of Palauan and Micronesian cultural history. The recent recovery and specialized analyses of significant quantities of flaked stone artifacts allow for an interpretation of Palau’s flaked stone tool use in the context provided by these new chronological and settlement models.

In this article, we summarize the archaeological analyses of Palau’s chipped stone artifacts, review ethnohistorical sources for descriptions and potential use of lithic tools, and present the results of a recent microscopic use-wear and residue analysis of 20 flaked stone artifacts.

Journal of Archaeological Science 33:114-121

Michael Haslam

Microscopic identification of organic residues in situ on the surface of archaeological artefacts is an established procedure. Where soil components morphologically similar to use-residue types exist within the soil, however, there remains the possibility that these components may be misidentified as authentic residues. The present study investigates common soil components known as conidia, fungal spores which may be mistaken for starch grains. Conidia may exhibit the rotating extinction cross under cross-polarised light commonly diagnostic of starch, and may be morphologically indistinguishable from small starch grains, particularly at the limits of microscope resolution. Conidia were observed on stone and ceramic archaeological artefacts from Honduras, Palau and New Caledonia, as well as experimental artefacts from Papua New Guinea. The findings act as a caution that in situ analysis of residues, and especially of those less than 5 μm in size, may be subject to misidentification.

Journal of Social Archaeology 6:402-424

Michael Haslam

The discovery and interpretation of microscopic residues on stone artefacts is an expanding front within archaeological science, allowing reconstructions of the past use of specific tools. With notable exceptions, however, the field has seen little theoretical development, relying largely on a rationale in which either individual findings are widely generalized or the age of the site determines the importance of the results. Here an approach to residue interpretation is proposed that draws on notions of narrative, scale, action and agency as one means of expanding the theoretical scope and application of residue studies. It is suggested that the individual resonance of the findings of residue analyses with people in the present day can be used to provide a more nuanced understanding of past actions, which in turn allows both better integration and communication of those findings within and outside the archaeological community, and begins to overcome the problems associated with the typically small sample sizes analysed in stone-tool residue studies.

Hawaiian Archaeology 10:1-17

Marshall I Weisler, Michael Haslam

Volcanic glass artifacts are commonly found throughout Polynesia, and their function has been debated for several decades. Microscopic edge damage—usually small flake scars along only one edge of the glass flake—was previously thought to result from cutting, scraping, or boring tasks when scaling and gutting fish, butchering dog and pig, scraping vegetables, or preparing fiber or bark. However, none of these explanations have been tied directly to empirical microscopic evidence (such as residues) of these inferred tasks. We examined 14 volcanic glass flakes from late prehistoric habitation sites along the north coast of Moloka‘i and 15 flakes from several sites on Henderson Island (Pitcairn Group) to determine the presence and kind of residues found near the working edges of these diminutive artifacts. Twenty-eight percent of the flakes exhibited microscopic residues suggesting plant preparation and shell working functions. Further analysis on an expanded sample of properly collected artifacts from a broader range of sites should elucidate additional functions of this nondescript artifact class.

Australian Archaeology 61:71-79

Stephen Nichols, Jonathan Prangnell, Michael Haslam

The school education system is an important public sphere where popular notions of archaeology and the archaeological past are produced and reproduced. Within the framework of an interpretive public archaeology, schools represent a significant social context in which archaeologists might seek meaningful engagement with the wider community. Analysis of the Queensland Education Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) syllabus reveals that there are many opportunities for the inclusion of Australian archaeology examples in the curricula of both primary and secondary schools. In this paper we develop a public outreach strategy for engaging the Queensland school curriculum and report on two case studies from southeast Queensland where this strategy was implemented.

Journal of Archaeological Science 31:715-1734

Michael Haslam

Recent research involving starch grains recovered from archaeological contexts has highlighted the need for a review of the mechanisms and consequences of starch degradation specifically relevant to archaeology. This paper presents a review of the plant physiological and soil biochemical literature pertinent to the archaeological investigation of starch grains found as residues on artefacts and in archaeological sediments. Preservative and destructive factors affecting starch survival, including enzymes, clays, metals and soil properties, as well as differential degradation of starches of varying sizes and amylose content, were considered. The synthesis and character of chloroplast-formed ‘transitory’ starch grains, and the differentiation of these from ‘storage’ starches formed in tubers and seeds were also addressed. Findings of the review include the higher susceptibility of small starch grains to biotic degradation, and that protective mechanisms are provided to starch by both soil aggregates and artefact surfaces. These findings suggest that current reasoning which equates higher numbers of starch grains on an artefact than in associated sediments with the use of the artefact for processing starchy plants needs to be reconsidered. It is argued that an increased understanding of starch decomposition processes is necessary to accurately reconstruct both archaeological activities involving starchy plants and environmental change investigated through starch analysis.

Australian Archaeology 56:1-7

Michael Haslam, Jonathan Prangnell, Luke Kirkwood, Anthony McKeough, Adrian Murphy, Thomas H Loy

Salvage excavation of the Suncorp Stadium (Lang Park) redevelopment site in Brisbane revealed almost 400 graves. Originally known as the North Brisbane Burial Grounds, it was the site of Brisbane’s principal cemetery between 1843 and 1875. A grave in the Anglican section of the cemetery yielded several teeth and associated non-dental bone fragments, and stature data derived from the coffin indicate a child burial. Observation of the stages of tooth eruption, resorption, and formation revealed evidence for two children, one aged approximately three years old and the other aged 12. An examination of the coffin furniture showed that the coffin was bought by a wealthy Anglican family, and DNA analyses suggest that the older individual was of Eastern European descent. These results suggest the burial of the older child in the same grave as the younger was most likely clandestine, and highlight the importance of post-excavation analyses to the interpretation of Australian cemeteries.