Sizod writes: “Here’s proof that Toolmongering started with chimps’ ancestors.” From Archaeology News/SFGate.com:
“Archaeologists working in the rain forest of West Africa’s Ivory Coast say they have found a site where prehistoric families of cimpanzees fashioned crude stone hammers to crack open nuts for their food.”
This reminds me of something I learned from Sean: never hit something (or someone) with any part of your body when there’s something else available for the task. Apparently neither he — nor his martial-arts instructor — was the first to come to that conclusion.
The rest of the article’s an interesting read as well.
Excavators Say They’ve Found Tools Made by Chimps [Archaeology News]
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One Response to Chimpanzees: The First Toolmongers?
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Interesting that it is in West Africa. Back when I studied Anthropology in the early 90s everything was in East Africa (Olduvai Gorge, etc.) or South Africa. It’s interesting to see early tool use all over sub-Saharan Africa.
Makes me think of:
There was a Far Side cartoon that depicted one cave dweller holding a single round stone in his hand with another cave dweller holding a ‘tool box’ full of more of the same round stones. The first guy holding the single stone exclaims: “I asked for a hammer, A HAMMER! This is a crescent wrench…… Well, maybe it’s a hammer. DAMN these stone tools!”
(Stole this from someone’s post on another message board)