Fire-Tools · Tools for the identification of anthropic Fire in low visibility contexts during the Middle Pleistocene

Tools for the identification of anthropic Fire in low visibility contexts during the Middle Pleistocene

Fire is an element that has profoundly changed the way human groups live. However, we know very little about where, when and how this process took place, especially in relation to the earliest evidence of fire in the Middle Pleistocene. There is a consensus that the first uses of fire were associated with human groups catching fire from natural wildfires. However, there is a great deal of controversy and debate around this phenomena, related to the type of evidence that would support these first uses of fire, how to identify them in the archaeological record, and how to distinguish them from natural fires. This project has included two Middle Pleistocene sites on the Iberian Peninsula (Sima del Elefante and La Cansaladeta) that have limited evidence for the use of fire, but are within the period of 300-400 thousand years when previous research suggests that the use of fire became commonplace. The Fire-Tools project will provide a good opportunity to test the suitability of the new methods for identifying the anthropogenic origin of fire, and to generate new analytical and methodological approaches that can be widely applied to any type of fire or fire-related feature, without chronological or geographical constraints. Despite the difficulties presented by the initial evidence of fire, the Fire-Tools project proposes to develop a multi-proxy analysis with three successive objectives: - Identification: to test the use of PAHs, phytoliths and the applicability of phytolith CMRs at two specific sites to detect traces of fire and determine the anthropogenic origin of concealed fire evidence. - Integration: to bring together the results of PAHs and phytoliths with other archaeological data provided by archaeologists and researchers to integrate all fire evidence into a contextual framework. - Evaluation: to provide guidelines for the detection of anthropogenic fire in future studies related to pyroarchaeology, after considering the limitations and potential of our methodological proposal based on archaeobotanical and chemical approaches. In summary, Fire-Tools aims to generate new data that will have an impact on the debate about the habitual use of fire, relying on a powerful methodological structure to position the project results in a prominent place to advance knowledge of pyrotechnics in the genus Homo.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз