Experimenting the Use of Fire in the Operational Chain of Prehistoric Wooden Tools: the Digging Sticks of Poggetti Vecchi (Italy)

Revedin, Anna; Grimaldi, Stefano; Florindi, Silvia; Santaniello, Fabio; Aranguren, Biancamaria

doi:10.1007/s41982-019-00043-3

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Moreover, other hominid species such as Neanderthals used digging sticks hardened with fire more than 170,000 y.o. in Tuscany, Italy (Revedin et al 2020) (see Fig. 2).…”

Section: Value For Conservation Of Geophyte Flora and Cultural Connec...mentioning

confidence: 97%

First Nations’ interactions with underground storage organs in southwestern Australia, a Mediterranean climate Global Biodiversity Hotspot

Lullfitz

Knapp

Cummings³

et al. 2022

Plant Soil

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Aims and background Underground storage organs (USOs) have long featured prominently in human diets. They are reliable year-round resources, especially valuable in seasonal climates. We review a significant but scattered literature and oral recounts of USOs utilised by Noongar people of the Southwest Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR). USOs are important to First Nations cultures in other geophyte-rich regions with Mediterranean climate, with specialist knowledge employed, and productive parts of the landscape targeted for harvest, with likely ecological interactions and consequences. Methods We have gathered Noongar knowledge of USOs in the SWAFR to better understand the ecological role of Noongar-USO relationships that have existed for millennia. Results We estimate that 418 USO taxa across 25 families have Noongar names and/or uses. Additionally, three USO taxa in the SWAFR weed flora are consumed by Noongar people. We found parallels in employment of specific knowledge and targeted ecological disturbance with First Nations’ practice in other geophyte-rich floristic regions. We found that only in 20% of cases could we identify the original source of recorded USO knowledge to an acknowledged Noongar person. Conclusion This review identified that traditional Noongar access to USOs is taxonomically and geographically extensive, employing specific knowledge and technology to target and maintain resource rich locations. However, we also found a general practice of ‘extractive’ documentation of Noongar plant knowledge. We identify negative implications of such practice for Noongar people and SWAFR conservation outcomes and assert ways to avoid this going forward, reviving Noongar agency to care for traditional Country.

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“…Moreover, other hominid species such as Neanderthals used digging sticks hardened with fire more than 170,000 y.o. in Tuscany, Italy (Revedin et al 2020) (see Fig. 2).…”

Section: Value For Conservation Of Geophyte Flora and Cultural Connec...mentioning

confidence: 97%

First Nations’ interactions with underground storage organs in southwestern Australia, a Mediterranean climate Global Biodiversity Hotspot

Lullfitz

Knapp

Cummings³

et al. 2022

Plant Soil

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“…For silcrete heat treatment in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa, Delagnes et al (2016) propose that heat treatment occurred early in the chaine opertaire, during core exploitation, influencing all following production stages and preserving in all ensuing products. Here, Revedin et al (2019) explore the role of fire in the manufacture of wooden tools and present actualistic experiments for wooden tools such as have been found in the Middle Paleolithic deposits at Poggetti Vecchi, Italy (Aranguren et al 2018). At Poggetti Vecchi, the researchers observed that some of these wooden tools preserved superficial charring and hypothesized that these traces result from implementing fire in the tool production process.…”

Section: Fire Use In the Production Sequencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…At Poggetti Vecchi, the researchers observed that some of these wooden tools preserved superficial charring and hypothesized that these traces result from implementing fire in the tool production process. Based on their experimental study, Revedin et al (2019) suggest that such traces could result from controlled burning in a hearth and that this extra step would have helped to speed up the processing regarding the surface preparation as well as for the final shaping of the pointed tip.…”

Section: Fire Use In the Production Sequencementioning

confidence: 99%

Fire as an Artifact—Advances in Paleolithic Combustion Structure Studies: Introduction to the Special Issue

2020

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Hearths present sedimentary features, artifacts, and direct evidence for maintained and controlled fire in the past. The use of hearths reflects regular access to fire and its diverse benefits. Among these benefits are cooked food, protection from the cold and from predators, and fire’s transformative power regarding raw materials. Hearths may have also served as focal points of activity at Paleolithic campsites and triggered changes in social structures. As sedimentary features, combustion structures function as behavioral as well as paleoenvironmental archives. The papers in this special issue focus on the former aspect, how combustion feature can serve as transmitters of behavior, and with what tools we can explore them. We here briefly present an overview on the range of topics explored in these papers, which include ethnoarchaeological research on fire use among recent hunter-gatherer groups, spatial analysis of burnt lithics, actualistic experiments regarding fire function and fire use in tool production.

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“…In the last five years there has been methodological progress in the application of experimentation, macro-and micro-traceology, and chemical analyses to understand manufacturing and use traces and growth features of prehistoric wood artefacts [e.g. 1,[9][10][11], although few researchers have addressed taphonomic effects on Pleistocene wood artefacts [but see 12]. Building on this recent work and that of wood specialists working to elaborate on the chaîne opératoire of later prehistoric wood [e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A double-pointed wooden throwing stick from Schöningen, Germany: Results and new insights from a multianalytical study

et al. 2023

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The site of Schöningen (Germany), dated to ca. 300,000 years ago, yielded the earliest large-scale record of humanly-made wooden tools. These include wooden spears and shorter double-pointed sticks, discovered in association with herbivores that were hunted and butchered along a lakeshore. Wooden tools have not been systematically analysed to the same standard as other Palaeolithic technologies, such as lithic or bone tools. Our multianalytical study includes micro-CT scanning, 3-dimensional microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, supporting a systematic technological and taphonomic analysis, thus setting a new standard for wooden tool analysis. In illustrating the biography of one of Schöningen’s double-pointed sticks, we demonstrate new human behaviours for this time period, including sophisticated woodworking techniques. The hominins selected a spruce branch which they then debarked and shaped into an aerodynamic and ergonomic tool. They likely seasoned the wood to avoid cracking and warping. After a long period of use, it was probably lost while hunting, and was then rapidly buried in mud. Taphonomic alterations include damage from trampling, fungal attack, root damage and compression. Through our detailed analysis we show that Middle Pleistocene humans had a rich awareness of raw material properties, and possessed sophisticated woodworking skills. Alongside new detailed morphometrics of the object, an ethnographic review supports a primary function as a throwing stick for hunting, indicating potential hunting strategies and social contexts including for communal hunts involving children. The Schöningen throwing sticks may have been used to strategically disadvantage larger ungulates, potentially from distances of up to 30 metres. They also demonstrate that the hominins were technologically capable of capturing smaller fast prey and avian fauna, a behaviour evidenced at contemporaneous Middle Pleistocene archaeological sites.

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Experimenting the Use of Fire in the Operational Chain of Prehistoric Wooden Tools: the Digging Sticks of Poggetti Vecchi (Italy)

Cited by 8 publications

References 27 publications

First Nations’ interactions with underground storage organs in southwestern Australia, a Mediterranean climate Global Biodiversity Hotspot

First Nations’ interactions with underground storage organs in southwestern Australia, a Mediterranean climate Global Biodiversity Hotspot

Fire as an Artifact—Advances in Paleolithic Combustion Structure Studies: Introduction to the Special Issue

A double-pointed wooden throwing stick from Schöningen, Germany: Results and new insights from a multianalytical study

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