Experimental Approaches to Archaeological Fire Features and Their Behavioral Relevance (original) (raw)
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Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, 2020
Hearths present sedimentary features, artifacts, and direct evidence for maintained and controlled fire in the past. The use of hearths reflects regular access to fire and its diverse benefits. Among these benefits are cooked food, protection from the cold and from predators, and fire’s transformative power regarding raw materials. Hearths may have also served as focal points of activity at Paleolithic campsites and triggered changes in social structures. As sedimentary features, combustion structures function as behavioral as well as paleoenvironmental archives. The papers in this special issue focus on the former aspect, how combustion feature can serve as transmitters of behavior, and with what tools we can explore them. We here briefly present an overview on the range of topics explored in these papers, which include ethnoarchaeological research on fire use among recent hunter-gatherer groups, spatial analysis of burnt lithics, actualistic experiments regarding fire function and...
We present preliminary results from the first phase of experiments from the Neanderthal Fire Technology Project, aimed at understanding Middle Palaeolithic combustion structures. Our field observations and micromorphological data address the sedimentary expression of various anthropogenic actions (trampling, ash sweeping and dumping, relighting and cooking) performed on simple, flat combustion structures made with Pinus nigra fuel on dry and slightly vegetated calcareous sandy substrates. We observed a characteristic pattern in microstructure and basic composition irrespective of the number and kind of anthropogenic actions performed. Trampling yielded previously documented diagnostic micromorphological features, more pronounced in cases of ash sweeping and dumping. Relighting of fires was only identified in cases with deposits between combustion events. Only rare microscopic calcined bone fragments and fat-derived char were identified in fires involving cooking or tossing of meat in the fire. These data suggest that: anthropogenic actions on simple combustion structures are highly undetectable; sweeping has a stronger effect than trampling on the substrate of the combustion structure; stacked hearths might involve significant amounts of time or deposits between combustion events; and alternative techniques must be sought to identify cooking in fires.
Quaternary International, 2013
We present preliminary results from the first phase of experiments from the Neanderthal Fire Technology Project, aimed at understanding Middle Palaeolithic combustion structures. Our field observations and micromorphological data address the sedimentary expression of various anthropogenic actions (trampling, ash sweeping and dumping, relighting and cooking) performed on simple, flat combustion structures made with Pinus nigra fuel on dry and slightly vegetated calcareous sandy substrates. We observed a characteristic pattern in microstructure and basic composition irrespective of the number and kind of anthropogenic actions performed. Trampling yielded previously documented diagnostic micromorphological features, more pronounced in cases of ash sweeping and dumping. Relighting of fires was only identified in cases with deposits between combustion events. Only rare microscopic calcined bone fragments and fat-derived char were identified in fires involving cooking or tossing of meat in the fire. These data suggest that: anthropogenic actions on simple combustion structures are highly undetectable; sweeping has a stronger effect than trampling on the substrate of the combustion structure; stacked hearths might involve significant amounts of time or deposits between combustion events; and alternative techniques must be sought to identify cooking in fires.
Mallol C., Henry A. (2017). Ethnoarchaeology of Paleolithic Fire Methodological Considerations
Most of the ethnoarchaeological literature on hearths is scattered within general works that target many different aspects of foraging or hunter-gatherer societies. Although these works are a good source of ideas and clues for the interpretation of macroscopically observable features of Paleolithic hearths, there is hardly any high-resolution ethnoarchaeological reference material with which to compare microstratigraphic evidence of archaeological fire. Our ethnoarchaeological research at this scale has focused on exploring differential preservation of open-air hearths and the potential to identify fire-related activities and different variables of fire technology (fuel, temperature, and function) using micromorphological and anthracological analysis. Although these studies have been useful sources of analogy, further case studies as well as ethnoarchaeological examples of superposed and imbricated hearths and reference material from enclosed settings such as caves and rock shelters are strongly called for. In this paper we summarize and discuss aspects of our previous work to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the ethnoarchaeological approach for the study of Paleolithic fire and propose possible avenues for future research on the topic.
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2012
Combustion features inform archaeologists about the prehistoric use of space, subsistence behaviors, and tempo of site visitation. Their study in the field is difficult because burned sediments are susceptible to reworking and diagenesis. Microarchaeological analyses, including micromorphology, are essential for documenting the composition, preservation, and function of hearths and other burned residues. These investigations focus on the description of fuels, depositional fabrics and structures, and mineralogy. As evidenced by a literature review, microarchaeological analyses have much to offer Paleolithic archaeologists, while applications of the techniques to Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites and in ethnographic or experimental contexts are presently rare.
Experiments Around the Fire. Discovering Human and Natural Processes in Middle Paleolithic Hearths
2015
The use of fire technology in prehistoric societies is very well known. However, research is still being carried out into its production and control during the middle Paleolithic period. The study of hearths has illustrated the social aspects of human groups through studies of their typology and morphology, the study of the combustible materials and the spatial distribution of remains. In the latter case it is important to differentiate that which has occurred naturally or as a result of human activity. Another factor which must also be considered is the influence of the location of the materials used to make the fire, as well as the temperatures. In this paper we present a comparative study of experimental fire places with archaeological examples from the El Cañaveral middle Paleolithic site. This study analyzes the relationship between temperature, location inside the fireplace, and the spatial distribution of heated elements in order to consider the "fire spatial displacemen...
Geochemical evidence for the control of fire by Middle palaeolithic Hominins
Scientific Reports, 2019
The use of fire played an important role in the social and technological development of the genus Homo. Most archaeologists agree that this was a multi-stage process, beginning with the exploitation of natural fires and ending with the ability to create fire from scratch. Some have argued that in the Middle Palaeolithic (MP) hominin fire use was limited by the availability of fire in the landscape. Here, we present a record of the abundance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pAHs), organic compounds that are produced during the combustion of organic material, from Lusakert cave, a Mp site in Armenia. We find no correlation between the abundance of light PAHs (3-4 rings), which are a major component of wildfire PAH emissions and are shown to disperse widely during fire events, and heavy PAHs (5-6 rings), which are a major component of particulate emissions of burned wood. Instead, we find heavy PAHs correlate with Mp artifact density at the site. Given that hpAH abundance correlates with occupation intensity rather than lPAH abundance, we argue that MP hominins were able to control fire and utilize it regardless of the variability of fires in the environment. Together with other studies on MP fire use, these results suggest that the ability of hominins to manipulate fire independent of exploitation of wildfires was spatially variable in the MP and may have developed multiple times in the genus Homo. The use of fire played a key role in the evolution of the genus Homo 1 , allowing for warmth, cooking, birch tar production, protection from predators, a venue for social interactions and access to high latitudes and dark caves 2. Evidence of hominin fire use is present in the archaeological record beginning around 1.5 million years ago 3-5 , and while it has long been assumed that a variety of hominin species could use fire 5-7 , the degree to which hominins were able to intentionally create and control fire (pyrotechnology) is debated 8-17. Recently, some have argued that this ability was exclusive to modern humans 9,12,16 , with other hominins, such as Neanderthals, limited to exploiting wildfires. Neanderthals went extinct during the late Pleistocene. The reasons for that extinction remain unclear, and recent genetic data indicate that Neanderthal DNA persists among certain modern populations of Homo sapiens 18. Neanderthal extinction has been linked specifically or in combination to fire use, foraging behaviors, a lack of clothing, demography, climate change, and interactions with expanding populations of Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens 19,20. Evidence for the use of fire among MP hominins includes burning found in archaeological sites, and the construction of hearths. Manganese dioxide blocks, which are useful for fire-starting, have also been excavated at MP sites and are interpreted by some as evidence of Neanderthal fire production 21. However, research at MP sites in France claims that fire frequency, measured by thermally altered flint and burnt bone, is positively correlated with warmer periods, when wildfire frequency is assumed to be highest, rather than with colder, glacial periods when fire use would have provided greater benefit; this correlation is derived by associating chronometrically dated stratigraphic layers at these sites with particular phases of Pleistocene global temperature records. These data are collectively interpreted as evidence that Neanderthals had not mastered 1
The aim of this article is to present an experimental approach for studying the formation and transformation processes of archaeological fire structures. We present a synthetic review of our experimental project, which was developed in many different natural archaeological contexts. We report the results and problems associated with experimental fires lit on different kinds of soils and in different environments, followed by the observation of natural and anthropic transformations. Finally, we analyse the nature and significance of these results for the archaeological interpretation process, while describing some general trends and showing the complexity of the approach.
While it is true that the use of fire is undoubtedly an important behavioral trait, fire can also leave important traces in archaeological deposits, including altering previously deposited sediments and ar-tifacts. The set of controlled experiments reported here do not focus on fire per se, but rather on the effects of some of the most important variables underlying the transfer of heat to subsurface sediments. These variables, including temperature, duration, sediment type, moisture, and mineralogy, are altered here in ways that essentially bracket the range of conditions under which past fires may have existed. The results show that sediments as much as 10 cm directly below a heat source routinely reach temperatures of 200 C, with higher temperatures and greater depth of heat transfer possible with longer durations or higher surface temperatures. One of the implications of these results is that a surface can produce substantial thermal-alterations of archaeological artifacts and sediments deposited much earlier in the sequence. Likewise, there are significant implications for the analyses and chronometric dating of thermally altered sediments and burned artifacts.