Katarina Almeida-Warren
Primate archaeology, primate technology and culture, primate ecology, human origins, conservation and heritage, agent-based modelling
Research Interests:
I am a final year DPhil student with a background in archaeology, primatology and anthropology, under the supervision of Dr Susana Carvalho. I am interested in the tool-use, archaeology and culture of non-human primates and how this can provide new perspectives to human origins research. My current doctoral project is investigating the ecological and foraging contexts of chimpanzee stone technology as a comparative framework for reconstructing patterns of landscape-use and resource exploitation in our earliest tool-using ancestors.
Through ongoing collaborations, I am also involved in archaeological research of chimpanzee termite-fishing in Tanzania, which is contributing towards our knowledge of plant-based (perishable) tool use and its relevance to human evolution and our technological origins. I am a National Geographic Explorer, an active member of the IUCN SSC PSG SGA Working Group for Chimpanzee Cultures, and a graduate affiliate at the Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB) in Portugal.
Previous Education
Master of Science (MSc) in Human Evolution and Behaviour, UCL (2015)
Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Archaeological Science, University of Sheffield (2013)
Awards
The Boise Trust Fund Award – University of Oxford (2019)
Early Careers Grant – The National Geographic Society (2018)
The Boise Trust Fund Award – University of Oxford (2017)
The Boise Trust Fund Award – University of Oxford (2016)
Foundation for Science and Technology Ph.D. scholarship – FCT, Portugal (2016)
Dean’s List for Academic Excellence – Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences, UCL (2015)
Daryll Forde Studentship – Department of Anthropology, UCL (2014)
Kay Harvey Prize in Archaeological Science – Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield (2013)
Emily Willey Prize in Archaeology and Prehistory - Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield (2013)
Publications
Almeida-Warren, K., Matsuzawa, T., Carvalho, S. (Pre-print; 2021) Landscaping the behavioural ecology of primate stone tool use. BioRxiv, 2021.08.24.457369. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.24.457369.
Carvalho, S., Erin, W., Abwe, E. Almeida-Warren, K., et al. (2022) Using non-human culture in conservation requires careful and concerted action. Conservation Letters, e12860. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12860.
Pascual-Garrido, A., Almeida-Warren, K. (2021) Archaeology of the perishable: Ecological constraints and cultural variants in chimpanzee termite-fishing. Current Anthropology 62(3): 333-362. https://doi.org/10.1086/713766
Almeida-Warren, K., Braun, D. R., Carvalho, S. (2021) The DistoX2: A methodological solution to archaeological mapping in poorly accessible environments. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 35:102688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102688
Carvalho, S., Almeida-Warren, K. (2019) Primate Archaeology. Encyclopaedia of Animal Behaviour, 2nd Ed. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809633-8.90156-0
Almeida-Warren, K., Sommer, V., Piel, A. and Pascual-Garrido, A. (2017) Raw material procurement for termite fishing tools by wild chimpanzees in the Issa valley, western Tanzania. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 164:292-304. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23269
Selected Presentations
Almeida-Warren, K. (2021) Bringing primate technological landscapes to life using computer simulation. Primate Conversations Seminar Series, University of Oxford. Available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoZJjHQWZic
Almeida-Warren, K., Braun, D. R., Carvalho, S. (2020) Disto X2: a methodological solution to the challenges of spatial mapping in Primate Archaeology. PRIMARCH Workshop: new methodologies in primate archaeology, Tübingen, Germany.
Almeida-Warren K., Matsuzawa T., Carvalho S. (2019) A Home Range approach to the ecology of site selection in wild chimpanzee nut-cracking. European Federation of Primatology/Primate Society of Great Britain Meeting, Oxford
Almeida-Warren, K., Carvalho, S. (2019) Primate technology in context: examining the broader ecological and foraging landscapes. Wenner-Gren Foundation Workshop: Primate adaptations to complex environments and implications for early human evolution. Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique
Almeida-Warren K., Braun D. R., Matsuzawa T., Carvalho S. (2019) Landscaping chimpanzee and early hominin tool-use and resource exploitation – an ecological approach. Annual Meetings of the Paleoanthropological Society, Albuquerque, USA
Almeida-Warren, K., Braun, D. R., Regala, F. T., Curley, A., Matsuzawa, T., Carvalho, S. (2018) The ecology of chimpanzee technology: new approaches for modelling early hominin ranging patterns and resource exploitation. International Primatological Society Congress, Nairobi
Almeida-Warren, K. (2017) Ephemeral Technology: The archaeology of termite fishing. Evolutionary Anthropology Seminar Series, University of Liverpool
Media
Primate Conversations YouTube Seminar: Bringing primate technological landscapes to life using computer simulation
World Chimpanzee Day video series [collaborator]: https://tiny.cc/WCDayVideos
Cries of Our Ancestors [associate producer]: https://dceff.org/film/cries-of-our-ancestors/
Email: katarina.almeida-warren@anthro.ox.ac.uk
