Neanderthals: an ecologically selective species? Experimental methods to research fire use in the Abric Romani rockshelter
Lead Research Organisation:
Birkbeck, University of London
Department Name: History Classics and Archaeology
Abstract
Neanderthals had proficient control over fire, and Abric Romani (Capellades, Spain) is a key fire-using site from c.55ka BP. My project analyses charcoal from replica Abric Romani hearths, addressing questions of Neanderthal fuel choice, ecological knowledge and experimental bias. Individual fuel species will be tested for combustibility, and compared with Neanderthal data previously analysed in my Masters thesis (unpublished), to substantiate whether Neanderthals selected fuel by species or environmental availability. This has important implications for Neanderthal cognitive capacities and their similarity to our own species. More generally, my experiments will provide important benchmark samples for interpreting Palaeolithic and other hearth datasets.
This research would address three key questions: 'Did Neanderthals select firewood based on its accessibility or combustibility?', 'Does charcoal production/survival vary between different fuel species?' and 'Were the Abric Romani hearths constructed for particular functions?' To assess the second question and its implications for the first, I will create benchmark databanks correlating charcoal production with archaeological preservation on twelve genera (Acer, Erica, Fraxinus, Hippophae, Juniperus, Olea, Prunus, Quercus, Salix, Sorbus, Betula and Pinus), to test:
- Wood-to-charcoal conversion rates of various species, distinguishing between wet/dry/rotten and bark/core wood.
- Fire-pit constructions (stone-enclosed, sunken/semi-sunken etc.) and fire-starting methods (brushwood, vegetation, no kindling etc.).
- Different species' combustibility (including wet/dry/rotten and bark/core wood) on cone calorimeters to find optimal fuels.
- Charcoal degradation through artificial taphonomic processes (e.g. water percolation, crushing), demonstrating which fuel's charcoal most easily becomes unrecognisable.
- Various species as fire-starters/main fuels to examine relative quantities of charcoal produced, thus identifying relevant species Neanderthals chose as fire-starting fuels.
- Volunteers' tendencies to under-identify or misidentify certain species, and if this varies with condition (fresh/dry/rotten).
- Various species' drying times.
- If hearth function/shape affects preservation or interpretation.
- Various fire functions (warmth while sleeping, cooking, smoking, flint heat-cracking etc.), spatially mapping surrounding lithic fragments, and analysing remains in the experimental fire-pits with comparison to published Abric Romani material.
Much Neanderthal charcoal is from commingled fires, making it unclear whether different species were burnt together in one event or became commingled later. I shall compare (1) multi-species fires and (2) multiple re-burnings of different species on the same hearth, with inter-burning cleaning episodes. What survives such cleaning will provide proxies for hearth clearances, and hence Neanderthal site management.
This research would address three key questions: 'Did Neanderthals select firewood based on its accessibility or combustibility?', 'Does charcoal production/survival vary between different fuel species?' and 'Were the Abric Romani hearths constructed for particular functions?' To assess the second question and its implications for the first, I will create benchmark databanks correlating charcoal production with archaeological preservation on twelve genera (Acer, Erica, Fraxinus, Hippophae, Juniperus, Olea, Prunus, Quercus, Salix, Sorbus, Betula and Pinus), to test:
- Wood-to-charcoal conversion rates of various species, distinguishing between wet/dry/rotten and bark/core wood.
- Fire-pit constructions (stone-enclosed, sunken/semi-sunken etc.) and fire-starting methods (brushwood, vegetation, no kindling etc.).
- Different species' combustibility (including wet/dry/rotten and bark/core wood) on cone calorimeters to find optimal fuels.
- Charcoal degradation through artificial taphonomic processes (e.g. water percolation, crushing), demonstrating which fuel's charcoal most easily becomes unrecognisable.
- Various species as fire-starters/main fuels to examine relative quantities of charcoal produced, thus identifying relevant species Neanderthals chose as fire-starting fuels.
- Volunteers' tendencies to under-identify or misidentify certain species, and if this varies with condition (fresh/dry/rotten).
- Various species' drying times.
- If hearth function/shape affects preservation or interpretation.
- Various fire functions (warmth while sleeping, cooking, smoking, flint heat-cracking etc.), spatially mapping surrounding lithic fragments, and analysing remains in the experimental fire-pits with comparison to published Abric Romani material.
Much Neanderthal charcoal is from commingled fires, making it unclear whether different species were burnt together in one event or became commingled later. I shall compare (1) multi-species fires and (2) multiple re-burnings of different species on the same hearth, with inter-burning cleaning episodes. What survives such cleaning will provide proxies for hearth clearances, and hence Neanderthal site management.