Landscaping the behavioural ecology of chimpanzee technology: Perspectives from archaeology and agent-based modelling

Abstract

Studying living species and the dynamic ecological landscapes in which they live plays an important part in reconstructing ancient behaviours as well as the environmental and evolutionary processes that shaped them. Computational advances in recent decades are enhancing actualistic research by enabling the translation of real-world data into virtual landscapes through computer simulation. These can be used to design controlled in-silico experiments to explore questions such as, what were the ecological and behavioural factors that lead to the formation of early hominin stone tool sites? In this seminar, I discuss how I am addressing this question through simulating the technological landscape of the chimpanzees of Bossou (Guinea) using Agent-Based Modelling in NetLogo.

Katarina 'Kat' Almeida-Warren

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow

My research focuses on the archaeology of non-human primates to shed light on the behaviours, culture, and technology of our earliest ancestors