MICROCHARCOAL QUANTIFICATION IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD: TAPHONOMIC BIASES AND NEW APPROACHES (Invited Presentation)

Microcharcoal quantification is an excellent tool for reconstructing fire regimes and identifying anthropogenic fires in archaeological contexts. Individual microcharcoal particles are typically identified and counted during pollen and phytolith analyses. However, taphonomic processes and the methods used in the extraction protocols can fracture macro- and micro-charcoal pieces, artificially increasing their particle count. The fragmentation process biases the micro-charcoal quantification and can produce inaccurate interpretations of fire frequencies and intensities.

Here we present a series of in vitro and field experiments showing the effects of fragmentation in micro-charcoal particle count. We propose a new method of microcharcoal quantification using the sum of particle surface area, and we apply these results to the analysis of microcharcoal assemblages from modern-day experimental fires at the Silas Little Experimental Forest (New Jersey) and archaeological samples from the Paleolithic site of Abrigo de la Boja (Spain).