García-Ruiz et al / Frontiers in Psychology
Chimpanzee playing with crystal
Recent research experimented with chimpanzees and discovered that our “cousins” also share our fascination with shiny rocks.
A new published in Frontiers in Psychology suggests that humanity’s fascination with crystals may go back millions of years and chimpanzees may help explain why prehistoric humans began collecting shiny minerals long before using them as tools or ornaments.
The research establishes a link between the behavior of modern chimpanzees and some of the oldest crystal collections known in the archaeological record. One of the most famous examples was discovered in 1931 in Zhoukoudian, China, where they were 20 small quartz crystals founddating back to around 800,000 years ago, collected by Homo erectus. Similar discoveries, dating back to 500,000 years ago, were found in South Africa, while six quartz prisms collected approximately 300,000 years ago were found in India, says the .
Crucially, none of these ancient crystals show evidence of modification, suggesting that were not used as weaponstools or jewelry. Its purpose has long intrigued archaeologists.
To explore the mystery, researchers observed chimpanzees interacting with crystals in a controlled sanctuary. How humans and chimpanzees diverged from a common ancestor between six and eight million years agoany shared attraction to crystals could predate the first human species.
In one experiment, chimpanzees were presented with a large monolithic quartz crystal placed next to an ordinary stone of similar size. You animals ignored the dull stone and instead, they carried the crystal to its resting area, where they spent nearly two days examining it. One chimpanzee, Yvan, was seen rotating the object repeatedly and studying it from various angles.
In another test, chimpanzees were given a mixture of quartz crystals and common stones and consistently selected the crystals, immediately distinguishing them from other stones. Yvan even held a piece of quartz close to his eye, seeming to examine its transparency. In a later test, a chimpanzee named Sandy successfully separated three different types of crystals of a pile of stones, demonstrating the ability to categorize them as distinct objects.
The findings suggest that the impulse to collect crystals predates modern humans and was likely shared by extinct hominids such as Homo erectus.
