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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2018

Fire Use during the Early Upper Paleolithic: Complex Behaviors Highlighted by Fuels Management and Layout Variability

Résumé

Most studies regarding the Paleolithic use of fire in France have focused on its earliest traces, its mastery by Neanderthals, and its structures in Late Pleistocene open-air sites. Pyrotechnology nevertheless has apparently been fully integrated into human technical baggage at least since the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, making it all the more striking that for earlier phases of this period this subject remains relatively unexplored. It would be fair to say all the same that the archaeological evidence for fire in this context is scarce, with many instances having been excavated early following nowadays questionable methodologies, ultimately inhibiting their comparison with recent studies beyond simple morphological descriptions. Using examples from two recently excavated open-air sites, we provide insights on several elaborate fire-features. The first set of data comes from the Aurignacian campsite of Régismont-le-Haut (Poilhes, Southern France) and consists of a sample of its 30 recognized fire-related structures. Les Bossats (Ormesson, Paris region) comprises several layers, from the Middle Paleolithic to post-LGM phases of the Upper Paleolithic, yet here we will focus on the the Gravettian locus. By means of a multiscalar approach involving field observations, laboratory analysis (micromorphology and organic geochemistry) and comparisons with an experimental dataset, we will address fuel management, structures morphology and layout, and functional questions. In particular, the use of bone as fuel is shown to be a regular practice, used in addition to wood, and these two combustion elements are managed in differential yet complimentary ways. Several examples from domestic spaces within both sites shed light on complex structures formed by the merging of several fireplaces and their related maintenance features. The discussion of these results in regard to other cases, such as Abri Pataud, advocates for a thorough re-examination of the pyrotechnology during the Early Upper Paleolithic. The question here is not whether Homo sapiens had mastered fire, but rather the economic and functional underpinnings of human behavior in regards to fire, and what this can tell us about prehistoric cultural systems.
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Dates et versions

hal-02013862 , version 1 (11-02-2019)

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  • HAL Id : hal-02013862 , version 1

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Mathieu Lejay. Fire Use during the Early Upper Paleolithic: Complex Behaviors Highlighted by Fuels Management and Layout Variability. XVIII° congrès mondial de l’UISPP, Jun 2018, Paris, France. ⟨hal-02013862⟩
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