Assessing the Function of Palaeolithic Hearths: Experiments on Intensity of Luminosity and Radiative Heat Outputs from D
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Assessing the Function of Palaeolithic Hearths: Experiments on Intensity of Luminosity and Radiative Heat Outputs from Different Fuel Sources Sally Hoare 1 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Assessing the function of Palaeolithic hearths is a key research issue that can benefit from the application of experimental archaeology when examining whether the behaviourally related purposes of fire, e.g. heat, light and cooking, could be correlated with combustion features in the archaeological record. Not all species of wood and types of fuel burn the same way. Variability exists in the amount of ash and smoke produced, along with differences in speed of burning and outgoing light and heat. This paper examined the light and heat properties of nine different types of fuels (eight individual species of wood and fresh bone) by assessing intensity of luminosity and radiative heat outputs using a lux metre and thermal imaging camera. Results show that there is considerable variation between bone and wood in terms of light and heat output and between the individual species of wood. In order to assess whether heat efficiency may vary seasonally, experiments were performed overnight and repeated at ambient air temperature ranges of 11 to 13 and 0 to 3 °C. Results show that in the current data set fuels that emit lower to intermediate heat outputs could be more efficient at colder temperatures in terms of warmth. This represents a preliminary step forward towards attributing behaviourally relevant functions such as light and heat to Palaeolithic combustion features with regard to fuel selectivity. Keywords Experimental archaeology . Palaeolithic fire . Heat transfer . Fuel selectivity .
Light . Heat
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-01900047-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
* Sally Hoare [email protected]
1
Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK
Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology
Introduction Fire is suggested to be one of the most important technological advancements of the Homo genus due to the many benefits that its use and control affords in terms of human adaptation, e.g. light, heat, cooking, defence against predators, modification of material culture and the environment and colonisation of the northern latitudes (Bentsen 2014; Brown et al. 2009; Gowlett 2006; Roebroeks and Villa 2011; Wrangham and Carmody 2010). Even with these benefits and their implications concerning the evolution of firerelated human behaviours, little is currently known surrounding the circumstances by which fire use arose and became important as a major human adaptation. Over recent years, the benefits of foraging in fire-prone environments by early hominins as a stimulus for the initial uptake of fire has been put forward (Herzog et al. 2016; Hoare 2019), Parker et al. 2016; Pruetz and Herzog 2017). Two of the most obvious and immediate benefits of fire are light and heat
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