Chimpanzee populations across Africa exhibit remarkable cultural diversity, with distinct tool-use traditions and behaviours that are passed down through generations. In this talk, Dr Kat Almeida-Warren will explore how archaeological approaches to studying these cultural traditions provide critical insights into human evolutionary origins by revealing the behavioural and cognitive foundations of technology and cultural transmission in our closest living relatives. Drawing on her fieldwork experiences, she will also discuss how threatened chimpanzee populations face not only biological extinction but also the loss of cultural knowledge and discuss how cultural considerations can inform conservation strategies that protect both chimpanzees and their unique cultural heritage.

Katarina ‘Kat’ Almeida-Warren is a primate archaeologist and Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford, leading research at the intersection of archaeology, primatology, and evolutionary anthropology. Her work examines the archaeology of non-human primate tool-use and culture, with a focus on its contributions to human origins research and primate conservation. Her fieldwork centres on wild chimpanzee populations across Africa, conducting research at Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park—the site of Jane Goodall’s renowned studies—and Guinea’s Bossou Forest—known for its community of nut-cracking chimpanzees. Kat is also a National Geographic Explorer and a member of the recently established IUCN Working Group for Chimpanzee Cultures.