HIGH RESOLUTION STUDY OF PREHISTORIC COMBUSTION FEATURES

Combustion features (e.g., prehistoric hearths and domestic fires, and industrial installations, such as kilns) in archaeological layers represent one of the most important windows into the human past. In fact, fire management and pyrotechnology are unquestionably two of the distinguishing aspects of human behavior and later evolution. Moreover, these types of archaeological remains are the results of spatially localized activities of short duration (instantaneous in prehistoric terms). In order to exploit these aspects of ancient fire, we are developing a multi-disciplinary protocol to study a variety of prehistoric (~80-200 ka) and Bronze Age (late Holocene) combustion features with a high degree of resolution. Our protocol includes the preparation of thin sections and the integration of in situ analyses, such as micromorphology, organic petrology, FT-IR micro-spectroscopy, and phytoliths identification. Results from various archaeological sites including the Middle Palaeolithic will be illustrated.