Microarchaeological Approaches to the Identification and Interpretation of Combustion Features in Prehistoric Archaeological Sites

Mentzer, Susan M.

doi:10.1007/s10816-012-9163-2

Cited by 179 publications

(145 citation statements)

References 130 publications

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“…Analyses of hearth sediments can inform us about mobility, subsistence behaviors, and activity areas of hunter-gatherer societies (11,12). Recent analyses of burned residues in hearths have demonstrated their value for exploring associated food use; however, these investigations have focused on examining the use of animal bone and marine animal blubber for fuel and lighting at locations proximal to coastal environments (13)(14)(15).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical profiling of ancient hearths reveals recurrent salmon use in Ice Age Beringia

Choy

Potter

McKinney

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Current approaches to reconstruct subsistence and dietary trends in ancient hunter-gatherer societies include stable isotope analyses, but these have focused on human remains, cooking pottery, and food residues, which are relatively rare in the archaeological record. In contrast, short-term hearths are more ubiquitous worldwide, and these features can provide valuable evidence for ancient subsistence practices, particularly when faunal remains are not preserved. To test the suitability of hearths for this purpose, we conducted multiple chemical analyses: stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of total organic matter (expressed as δ 13 C and δ 15 N values) and compound-specific carbon isotope analyses of individual fatty acids (δ 13 C 16:0 and δ 13 C 18:0 ) from 17 well-preserved hearths present in three occupations dating between ∼13,200-11,500 calibrated years B.P. at the Upward Sun River (USR) site in central Alaska. We combined δ 15 N and δ 13 C FA data in a Bayesian mixing model (stable isotope analysis in R) with concentration dependency to each hearth. Our model values were tested against faunal indices, indicating a strong positive relationship between marine proportional contributions to each hearth and salmon abundance. Results of the models show substantial anadromous salmon use in multiple USR components, indicating recurrent use of the site for salmon processing during the terminal Pleistocene. Our results demonstrate that salmonid and freshwater resources were more important for late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers than previously thought and highlight the potential of chemical profiling of hearth organic residues for providing greater geographic and temporal insights into resource use by prepottery societies. stable isotopes | hearths | organic residue analysis | GC-combustion-IRMS | Beringia

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical profiling of ancient hearths reveals recurrent salmon use in Ice Age Beringia

Choy

Potter

McKinney

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The hearth context deposits consist of bedded intact hearths, interspersed with disorganized deposits of mixed ash and clay. We interpret the latter as evidence for the raking out of hearth features and/or trampling (Goldberg 2003;Karkanas et al 2015;Meignen et al 2007;Mentzer 2014). Both the faunal and lithic materials were burned at higher rates in the hearth context as compared to the breccias.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…The presences of wood ash crystals as well as their aggregated porous nature and variability in the orientation of elongated particles suggests that the upper bone breccia is the result of dumping activities of mostly hearth remains (e.g. Goldberg 2003;Meignen et al 2007;Mentzer 2014), though this does not exclude the possibility that some butchery debris was also discarded in this part of the site. One difference between the upper and lower bone breccias is that the lower contains fewer large pieces of burned bone, which corroborates the zooarchaeological results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Site Use and Maintenance in the Middle Palaeolithic at Lakonis I (Peloponnese, Greece)

et al. 2018

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Lakonis I (ca. 100,000-40,000 BP) is a collapsed Middle Palaeolithic cave on the coast of the Mani Peninsula of southern Greece. The site contains three distinctive components: a hearth context, upper bone breccia, and lower bone breccia. The bone breccias contain concreted deposits and large numbers of lithic and faunal materials, though the upper bone breccia preserves more evidence of dumping from hearth features. The hearth context is comprised of hearth lenses interspersed with mixed ashy sediments, which we interpret as the remnants of raked out and trampled combustion features. Bones and lithics in the hearth context have higher rates of burning, and the lithics are smaller and more broken. The large numbers of burned bones are probably not the result of accidental burning or the use of bone as a fuel source, rather they seem to relate to site maintenance. The incorporation of multiple lines of evidence points to two different site maintenance strategies at Lakonis: (1) the intentional burning of food refuse and (2) the cleaning of hearths, and dumping remnant deposits elsewhere at the site. We therefore consider Lakonis I to be amongst the growing list of sites that contain evidence for Neandertal behavioral complexity.

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“…In archaeological contexts, micromorphology has proven to be especially useful for several relevant aspects of the archaeological record interpretation, such as the distinction between anthropogenic and natural processes (Aldeias et al 2014;Mallol et al 2010;Goldberg et al 2003;Karkanas 2002), including the nature and significance of stratigraphic contacts and discontinuities (Mallol and Mentzer 2015). It has been particularly successful in the identification and assessment of the degree of preservation of anthropogenic features, such as combustion features (Mentzer 2014;Aldeias et al 2012) and occupational surfaces-including Mesolithic ones (Zerboni 2011)-and the recognition of human activities such as bedding, trampling (Goldberg et al 2009;Miller et al 2013) or intentional reworking of debris (Shillito et al 2011;Sherwood and Kidder 2011). These types of activities are very often only discernible at this microscopic scale.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The microstratigraphic record of human activities and formation processes at the Mesolithic shell midden of Poças de São Bento (Sado Valley, Portugal)

Duarte

Iriarte

Diniz

et al. 2017

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Shell midden formation is largely controlled by anthropogenic processes, resulting from human exploitation of aquatic resources. This makes shell middens archives of both human behaviour and palaeoenvironmental records. However, their often complex stratigraphy hampers the isolation of individual anthropogenic events. In the central/ southern coast of Portugal, extensive inland estuaries were preferential settings for Mesolithic groups from c. 6200 cal BC. Here, we present a microstratigraphic approach to the shell midden of Poças de São Bento, one of the largest and best-known sites in the Sado Valley. The microfacies approach was based on sedimentary components, their abundance and arrangement, and post-depositional processes. Anthropogenic processes identified as tossing events and anthropogenically reworked deposits allowed inferences on spatial organisation, preferential refuse areas, occupational surfaces, and temporality of the occupations. The presence of calcareous pebbles in the anthropogenic, shell-rich sediments, together with foraminifera, presumably from the estuarine marshes, is compared with the regional geology, providing a hypothetical location of the shellfish gathering. The microstratigraphy described reveals a full internal dynamic in the formation of the apparently homogeneous shell midden layer. The human activities inferred at Poças de São Bento have many similarities with those reported for Cabeço da Amoreira in the nearby Tagus palaeoestuary. This evidence points to the need for further micromorphological approaches in similar deposits. The study of shell midden formation processes, through integrative microcontextual approaches, plays a major role in understanding Mesolithic societies in the large early Holocene estuary environments of Atlantic Iberia.

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Microarchaeological Approaches to the Identification and Interpretation of Combustion Features in Prehistoric Archaeological Sites

Cited by 179 publications

References 130 publications

Chemical profiling of ancient hearths reveals recurrent salmon use in Ice Age Beringia

Chemical profiling of ancient hearths reveals recurrent salmon use in Ice Age Beringia

Site Use and Maintenance in the Middle Palaeolithic at Lakonis I (Peloponnese, Greece)

The microstratigraphic record of human activities and formation processes at the Mesolithic shell midden of Poças de São Bento (Sado Valley, Portugal)

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