Recognizing Early Use of Fire in the Paleolithic of Europe

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Controlling the use of fire was a technological milestone in human evolution. The beginnings of the control of fire remain controversial because preserved hearths containing a combination of combustion residues are easily altered and their identification in the archaeological record can be hindered by taphonomic biases. Excavations at the Gruta da Aroeira (Portugal) have yielded evidence that we interpret as one of the earliest examples of anthropogenic fire recorded in western Europe to date. The site is one of the very few Middle Pleistocene localities to have provided a fossil hominin cranium associated with Acheulean bifaces in a cave context with evidence of human occupation dating to ca. 400 ka (Marine Isotope Stage 11). Our interpretation is based on the study of the by-products of burning (charcoal, bones, sediments and lithics) from the site’s layer X (mostly, from sub-layer Xc), employing soil micromorphology, organic chemistry, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), magnetic properties, elemental composition, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and the analysis of spatial distribution patterns. Our results add to the still-limited knowledge about the controlled use of fire in the Lower Paleolithic and contribute to ongoing debates on the behavioral complexity of the Acheulean of Europe.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32898