The collection of the black minerals comprised primarily of manganese dioxide (MnO2 ) by Neandertals in France is a known archaeological phenomenon, with some of these blocks exhibiting evidence of... Show moreThe collection of the black minerals comprised primarily of manganese dioxide (MnO2 ) by Neandertals in France is a known archaeological phenomenon, with some of these blocks exhibiting evidence of having been abraded to produce powder. This has generally been interpreted as the production of black pigment that may have been applied to the body as a form of symbolic expression. However, Heyes and colleagues (2016) demonstrate that MnO2 can reduce the auto-ignition temperature of wood by upwards of 100°C and suggest that this special pyrotechnic property of powdered MnO2 may have been appreciated by Neandertals. Specifically, they suggest that the addition of MnO2 to tinder materials may have aided in fire-making. The purpose of the pilot study described here is to test the utility of MnO2 as a tinder enhancer during actualistic fire-making experiments. The flint-and-pyrite fire-making method was employed to produce sparks that were directed onto fluffed tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius) with and without added MnO2 to determine if and the degree to which this material improves the ability of the tinder to capture and propagate sparks into a glowing ember. The results of this pilot study lend support to the hypothesis of Heyes and colleagues by demonstrating that MnO2 improves the spark capturing efficiency of tinder material over untreated tinder, thereby reducing the time and energy required to produce fire using the percussive fire-making method. However, it was also observed that the incorporation of pyrite (FeS2 ) dust into the untreated tinder over the course of the experiments appeared to improve its ability to capture sparks, lending to the idea that pyrite powder added to tinder prior to making fire could also expedite the process and largely negates the need for collecting MnO2 for this purpose. Show less
The collection of the black minerals comprised primarily of manganese dioxide (MnO2) by Neandertals during the late Middle Palaeolithic in France is a known archaeological phenomenon, with some of... Show moreThe collection of the black minerals comprised primarily of manganese dioxide (MnO2) by Neandertals during the late Middle Palaeolithic in France is a known archaeological phenomenon, with some of these blocks exhibiting evidence of having been abraded to produce powder [1,2]. This has generally been interpreted as resulting from the production of black pigment that may have been applied to the body as a form of symbolic expression [3]. However, Heyes and colleagues [4] demonstrate that MnO2 can reduce the auto-ignition temperature of wood by upwards of 100°C and suggest that this special pyrotechnic property of powdered MnO2 may have been appreciated by Neandertals. Specifically, they suggest that the addition of MnO2 to tinder materials may have aided in fire-making. Recent findings suggesting that late Neandertals were producing fire by artificial means as early as 50,000 years ago lend credence to this hypothesis [4]. The purpose of the study described here is to test the utility of MnO2 as a tinder enhancer during actualistic fire-making experiments. The flint-and-pyrite fire-making method was employed to produce sparks that were directed onto different types of tinder, both with and without added MnO2, to determine if and the degree to which this material improves the ability of the tinders to capture sparks, allowing them to propagate into a glowing ember. The initial results of this study lend support to the hypothesis of Heyes and colleagues by demonstrating that MnO2 improves the spark capturing efficiency of tinder material over untreated tinder, thereby reducing the time and energy required to produce fire using the percussive fire-making method. However, it was also observed that the incorporation of pyrite dust into the untreated tinder over the course of the experiments appeared to improve its ability to capture sparks, lending to the idea that pyrite powder added to tinder prior to making fire could also expedite the process and largely negate the need for collecting MnO2 for this purpose.[1] Pitarch Martí, A., d'Errico, F., 2018. Seeking black. Geochemical characterization by PIXE of Palaeolithic manganese-rich lumps and their potential sources. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 50, 54-68.[2] Dayet, L., Faivre, J.-P., Le Bourdonnec, F.-X., Discamps, E., Royer, A., Claud, E., Lahaye, C., Cantin, N., Tartar, E., Queffelec, A., Gravina, B., Turq, A., d'Errico, F., 2019. Manganese and iron oxide use at Combe-Grenal (Dordogne, France): A proxy for cultural change in Neanderthal communities. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 25, 239-256.[3] Soressi, M., d'Errico, F., 2007. Pigments, gravures, parures : les comportements symboliques controversés des Néandertaliens, in: Vandermeersch, B., Maureille, B. (Eds.), Les Néandertaliens. Biologie et cultures. Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques (Documents Préhistoriques 23), Paris, pp. 297-309.[4] Heyes, P., Anastasakis, K., Jong, W.d., Hoesel, A.v., Roebroeks, W., Soressi, M., 2016. Selection and Use of Manganese Dioxide by Neanderthals. Scientific reports 6, 22159.[5] Sorensen, A.C., Claud, E., Soressi, M., 2018. Neandertal fire-making technology inferred from microwear analysis. Scientific reports 8, 10065. Show less
The ability to control fire is a pivotal trait of human culture and likely influenced both the physical and cultural development of our evolutionary lineage. We know fire fundamentally changed our... Show moreThe ability to control fire is a pivotal trait of human culture and likely influenced both the physical and cultural development of our evolutionary lineage. We know fire fundamentally changed our relationship with the world by making previously uninhabitable climates tolerable, inedible foods palatable and more nutritious, and providing a focal point around which complex social relationships could develop. It remains uncertain, however, when and in what manner fire became an integral part of the technological repertoire of our early ancestors. This gap in our knowledge prevents a full understanding of how fire affected our physical form and cultural lifeways. The long and drawn out process by which fire progressed from simply being a close companion in the natural environment to becoming a resource xploited opportunistically by hominins eventually led to greater control of fire. At this point, fire was largely ‘tamed’ through careful maintenance and transported from place to place. Ultimately, likely through a combination of serendipity and experimentation, humans discovered that they could make fire for themselves whenever and wherever they liked, providing a profound new freedom to control their environment, cook their food and produce new materials at will.This article provides an overview of the current state of our understanding of fire use, and more specifically, fire-making in the Paleolithic. There is currently much debate in the field surrounding this issue, and it is stressed herein that the only way to definitively infer any one hominin group could make fire is to identify the tools they used to do so. Therefore, much attention is paid to how archaeologists have attempted to identify fire-making tools in the archaeological record, primarily using experimental archaeology coupled with microwear analysis. Through these efforts, it appears stone-on-stone percussive fire-making using flint and pyrite was a skill first practiced by at least some groups of late Neanderthals, though its origins could be much older. Conversely, preservational problems associated with the wood-on-wood friction fire-making make it extremely difficult to assess the antiquity of this method. Lingering questions regarding early fire-making innovations and possible avenues for future research are discussed. Show less
The research contained in this dissertation explores the origins of fire making in prehistory, focusing primarily on the fire use practices and fire production capacities of Neandertals. The... Show moreThe research contained in this dissertation explores the origins of fire making in prehistory, focusing primarily on the fire use practices and fire production capacities of Neandertals. The dissertation is comprised of four peer-reviewed articles published in the journals Quaternary International, PLoS ONE, Journal of Archaeological Science and Scientific Reports, respectively, which are flanked by an introductory and synthesis chapter. The early chapters confront the debate surrounding the prevalence of fire use by Neandertals and discuss avenues by which we, as archaeologists, can better understand how fire use manifests in the Palaeolithic archaeological record. The latter chapters seek to provide a means for identifying artefactual evidence for fire making by Neandertals, ultimately presenting a series of French Middle Palaeolithic tools that exhibit use traces suggesting they were employed as fire starters, making these the earliest evidence for the regular production of fire by humans currently known. Show less
Fire use appears to have been relatively common among Neandertals in the Middle Palaeolithic. However, the means by which Neandertals procured their fire—either through the collection of natural... Show moreFire use appears to have been relatively common among Neandertals in the Middle Palaeolithic. However, the means by which Neandertals procured their fire—either through the collection of natural fire, or by producing it themselves using tools—is still a matter of debate. We present here the first direct artefactual evidence for regular, systematic fire production by Neandertals. From archaeological layers attributed to late Mousterian industries at multiple sites throughout France, primarily to the Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition (MTA) technoculture (ca. 50,000 years BP), we identify using microwear analysis dozens of late Middle Palaeolithic bifacial tools that exhibit macroscopic and microscopic traces suggesting repeated percussion and/or forceful abrasion with a hard mineral material. Both the locations and nature of the polish and associated striations are comparable to those obtained experimentally by obliquely percussing fragments of pyrite (FeS2) against the flat/convex sides of a biface to make fire. The striations within these discrete use zones are always oriented roughly parallel to the longitudinal axis of the tool, allowing us to rule out taphonomic origins for these traces. We therefore suggest that the occasional use of bifaces as ‘strike-a-lights’ was a technocultural feature shared among the late Neandertals in France. Show less
Evidence for fire use becomes increasingly sparse the further back in time one looks. This is especially true for Palaeolithic assemblages. Primary evidence of fire use in the form of hearth... Show moreEvidence for fire use becomes increasingly sparse the further back in time one looks. This is especially true for Palaeolithic assemblages. Primary evidence of fire use in the form of hearth features tends to give way to clusters or sparse scatters of more durable heated stone fragments. In the absence of intact fireplaces, these thermally altered lithic remains have been used as a proxy for discerning relative degrees of fire use between archaeological layers and deposits. While previous experimental studies have demonstrated the physical effects of heat on stony artefacts, the mechanisms influencing the proportion of fire proxy evidence within archaeological layers remain understudied. This fundamental study is the first to apply a computer-based model (fiReproxies) in an attempt to simulate and quantify the complex interplay of factors that ultimately determine when and in what proportions lithic artefacts are heated by (anthropogenic) fires. As an illustrative example, we apply our model to two hypothetical archaeological layers that reflect glacial and interglacial conditions during the late Middle Palaeolithic within a generic simulated cave site to demonstrate how different environmental, behavioural and depositional factors like site surface area, sedimentation rate, occupation frequency, and fire size and intensity can, independently or together, significantly influence the visibility of archaeological fire signals. Show less
We present here the first direct evidence for regular fire making by Neandertals. Isolated zones of macroscopic and microscopic traces suggesting repeated percussion and/or forceful abrasion with a... Show moreWe present here the first direct evidence for regular fire making by Neandertals. Isolated zones of macroscopic and microscopic traces suggesting repeated percussion and/or forceful abrasion with a hard mineral material were identified on dozens of large late Middle Palaeolithic bifacial tools using microwear analytical techniques. These bifaces were curated tools used for relatively long periods of time, and therefore possess a higher probability of preserving traces from multiple uses, including more infrequent activities. Both the distribution and nature of the observed mineral polish and associated striations are in many respects comparable to those obtained experimentally by obliquely percussing fragments of pyrite (FeS2) against the flatter 'faces' of a biface to make fire. The striations are always oriented roughly parallel to the long axis of the tool and are in some cases crosscut by subsequent flake removals, together arguing against a taphonomic origin for these traces. Such a percussive method is effective at regularly producing sparks that are easily directed towards tinder material while leaving the edges of the tool sharp for other tasks. These directional percussive and frictive use wear traces are present on bifacial tools recovered from archaeological layers primarily attributed to the Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition (MTA) technoculture (ca. 50,000 years BP) at multiple sites throughout France. We discuss findings from five of these sites: Chez-Pinaud/Jonzac (Charente-Maritime) and Pech de l’Azé I, Fonseigner, Bout des Vergnes and Meyrals in the Dordogne-. The use of bifaces as strike-a-light tools is a technocultural feature shared among the MTA peoples that represents the ‘smoking gun’ attesting to Neandertal fire making capabilities. Show less
Both environmental and cultural factors dictate how, when and where hunter-gatherers use fire in the landscape, as well as how well evidence for any one fire will preserve in the archaeological... Show moreBoth environmental and cultural factors dictate how, when and where hunter-gatherers use fire in the landscape, as well as how well evidence for any one fire will preserve in the archaeological record. Variability in the production and preservation of anthropogenic fire traces can potentially skew our perception of fire use in the past. With this in mind, the research presented in this article weighs in on the debate concerning Neandertal fire use and fire making, specifically, the assertion that Neandertals were unable to produce fire for themselves (Sandgathe et al., 2011a, 2011b). This hypothesis is based on the inferred correlation between climatic deterioration, concurrent lowering of lightning-ignited fire frequencies, and reduced signals for fire use in layers presumably deposited during the Lower Pleniglacial (Marine Isotope Stage 4) at the Middle Palaeolithic sites of Roc de Marsal and Pech de l’Azé IV (Aquitaine Basin, southwestern France), the logic being that if Neandertals could produce fire at will, fire use signals would remain largely consistent throughout the deposits despite there being limited access to natural fires in the landscape during this colder period. This review challenges these assertions at multiple scales by looking at regional lightning and fire regime dynamics, comparing the fire signals observed at Roc de Marsal and Pech de l’Azé IV to those of other sites nearby and around France, and exploring the various environmental and cultural factors likely influencing these signals. Ultimately, the data suggests that estimated reductions in lightning frequencies and fire regime during the Lower Pleniglacial (and colder stadial periods, in general) were not adequate to severely limit Neandertal access to natural fire, while possible artefactual evidence for Neandertal fire making challenges the assumption that they were at all reliant on lightning-ignited fire. Moreover, at the nearby Neandertal site of Combe Grenal, the majority of the layers exhibiting evidence of fire use have cold climatic signals, suggesting the fire use trends observed at Roc de Marsal and Pech de l’Azé IV are potentially local expressions of changes in regional site use patterns, possibly brought on by increased reliance on highly mobile, migratory reindeer prey species and reductions in local woodfuel availability during cold periods. Other factors potentially reducing the archaeological visibility of cold climate fire use are discussed. Show less
