Category: Lithic analysis

Brazilian stone tool-making monkeys

That title would be a great band or album name, huh?

My degrees are in anthropology, w/ a heavy, heavy focus on archaeology. For the last 10+ years though, my income has come from tech so I’m not as up-to-date on current archaeological research as I was back then. Came across a recent article that shows that some of the earliest South American archaeological sites as indicated by lithic — stone tool — detritus may actually be remnants from capuchin monkeys who make and use similar tools. Apparently this is a blow to researchers who are trying to disprove the “Clovis-first” hypothesis which essentially states that humans only showed up in the Americas in the last 10-15k years. Some of these sites had previously been cited as evidence of human habitation as long ago as 50k years.

The more we know, the weirder things seem to get.

Brazilian capuchin monkey
Earl D. Capuchin judges you silently
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