fire

Evidence for the production, use, and control of fire by Neanderthals in Europe ranges from the scale of ecosystems to microscopic alterations of artefacts. While there is a consensus that Neanderthals were skilled in the use of fire, there remains a dispute over whether they had mastered the ability to produce fire on demand. The unique discovery that Neanderthals may have been utilising manganese dioxide as...

Preface

Fire has an important role in human history not only as a source of light and heat but also as having an ideological meaning of “purity”, “cleansing”, “death” and “life”.

This paper investigates the creation, utilisation, and destruction of engraved Magdalenian plaquettes through the application of actualistic experimental replication. Archaeological evidence suggests that there is a relationship between plaquettes and hearth structures, as well as engraved depictions and the destruction of the plaquettes through heating. However, this relationship between fire and plaquettes...

Project incipience

The link established between EXARC and the Scientific Research Laboratory "Thracology" (Moldova State University) inspired the initiation of the first major project in the field of experimental archeology for the Republic of Moldova. The purpose of this project was to organize an experimental archeological open-air park in Saharna-Ţiglău (Nicic, 2009). 

11th EAC Trento 2019
***This contribution presents the experimental reconstruction of an underground oven replicated according to the archaeological evidence unearthed from the Early Neolithic site of Portonovo-Fosso Fontanaccia (Ancona-Italy). A domed structure, measuring 190x180 cm diameter at the base and 50 cm in height, was dug in 15 hours...

This book is a collection of six papers from the 2015 Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists session with the same title, co-organised by Dragoş Gheoghiu and Derek Pitman. The contributors to this work are a global team of thirteen archaeology researchers and experimental archaeologists who have studied different aspects of the use of fire and its influence on...

The article is focused on the creation of a protocol for the analytical characterization of fire-setting in different types of rock. A set of experiments of heating and cooling have been carried out on different kind of rocks under various conditions and durations in order to record changes in the structures and composition of the samples. This study was set to support the solution of issues in the case of...

During archaeological excavations, burned bones are often found as a result of cremation, cooking or accidental fire. Even though the bones are burned, their elemental composition might still hold information about diet, habitat and health history in the past.