Speaker: Carson Black
What would chimpanzee behavior look like if we only encountered it through the archaeological record? Drawing on fieldwork with the spear-hunting chimpanzees of Fongoli, Senegal, this talk explores how primate behavior translates (or fails to translate) into material traces. From tool-assisted hunting to repeated landscape use, chimpanzees produce patterned evidence that can resemble early human activity. At the same time, many behaviors, including perishable technologies and their occasional bipedalism, leave little to no trace. By pairing observed behavior with its potential archaeological signatures, this presentation highlights both the possibilities and the limitations of interpreting the deep past.