Fuliginochronology and Radiocarbon for the Direct Dating of Human Occupation Chronicles in Caves
Résumé
Fuliginochronology consists of establishing the chronology of human occupations from the study of soot deposits that are traces of paleo-fires or lighting devices that are contemporary with human occupations. These deposits are recorded in speleothems as high resolution archives where they can be observed according to their relative chronological order, providing a way of reconstructing historical narratives about the occupation of archaeological sites. However, these soot-based chronicles are "floating" in time; direct radiocarbon dating of the soot can place the human occupations associated with the soot layers in calendar time. This chapter focuses on methodology and demonstrates the feasibility of such a dating procedure. We have used the method to successfully date several soot deposits collected micro-stratigraphically in a same millimeter-thick carbonated parietal deposit at the Grotte Mandrin site (Malataverne, Drôme, France).