Neanderthal plant use and pyrotechnology: phytolith analysis from Roc de Marsal, France
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Neanderthal plant use and pyrotechnology: phytolith analysis from Roc de Marsal, France Kristen Wroth 1 & Dan Cabanes 2 & John M. Marston 1,3 & Vera Aldeias 4,5 & Dennis Sandgathe 6,7 & Alain Turq 8,9 & Paul Goldberg 1,10,11 & Harold L. Dibble 5,12,13 Received: 27 February 2018 / Accepted: 22 January 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract The plant component of Neanderthal subsistence and technology is not well documented, partially due to the preservation constraints of macrobotanical components. Phytoliths, however, are preserved even when other plant remains have decayed and so provide evidence for Neanderthal plant use and the environmental context of archaeological sites. Phytolith assemblages from Roc de Marsal, a Middle Paleolithic cave site in SW France, provide new insight into the relationship between Neanderthals and plant resources. Ninety-seven samples from all archaeological units and 18 control samples are analyzed. Phytoliths from the wood and bark of dicotyledonous plants are the most prevalent, but there is also a significant proportion of grass phytoliths in many samples. Phytolith densities are much greater in earlier layers, which is likely related to the presence of combustion features in those layers. These phytoliths indicate a warmer, wetter climate, whereas phytoliths from upper layers indicate a cooler, drier environment. Phytoliths recovered from combustion features indicate that wood was the primary plant fuel source, while grasses may have been used as surface preparations. Keywords Phytoliths . France . Middle Paleolithic . Neanderthals . Pyrotechnology
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00793-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Kristen Wroth [email protected] 1
Department of Archaeology, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA
2
Department of Anthropology, Center for Human Evolutionary Studies, and Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Studies, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 32 Bishop Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8558, USA
3
Department of Anthropology, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA
4
Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB), Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal
5
Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
6
Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, AQ 5054, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada
7
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA, USA
8
UMR-5199 PACEA, Université de Bordeaux, Allée Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France
9
Musée de Préhistoire de Sauveterre-la-Lémance, 47500 Sauveterre-la-Lémance, France
10
Centre for Archaeological Science (CAS), School of Earth and Environmental Scien
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