Bone tool use in termite foraging by early hominids and its impact on our understanding of early hominid behaviour : research in action

Abstract

Recent research conducted by Backwell and Backwell and d'Errico has confirmed earlier suggestions by Brain and Shipman that certain fossil bone fragments found at the Swartkrans and Sterkfontein sites were modified by early hominids. These new studies have also extended earlier research to the potential use of these artefacts, and suggest that the unusual tip modification found on most specimens is not fromdigging for roots, bulbs and tubers as was previously suggested. Rather, recent research suggests that the unique wear patterns were created during termite foraging in epigeal mounds, where weathered bones were used by hominids to dig into the colony. The implications of this research are many. These results are the first conclusive evidence of tool use linked to a specific food resource at this time depth. Furthermore, this research seems to demonstrate the often predicted link between living chimpanzee and early hominid social and cultural adaptation. It is also apparent that these tools formed part of an implement-assisted, termite-foraging cultural tradition that persisted unchanged in southern Africa for over half a million years.

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