The Acheulian Site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov Volume II: Ancient Flames and Controlled Use of Fire

ISBN-13: 9789400732063 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 120 str.

Nira Alperson-Afil; Naama Goren-Inbar

Opis

A View from Western Europe Most archaeologists would agree that the emergence of stone tool manufacture and the m- agement of fre are the two most signifcant events in the cultural evolution of early humans. The oldest known stone artifacts are securely dated to 2. 6 2. 5 Ma at several localities in Ethiopia; their association with ungulate remains and observations of cut marks prove that one of their main functions was for butchery (Dominguez-Rodrigo et al. 2005). The record of early stone tools from a number of sites in the time span 2. 5 2. 0 Ma is unequivocal; tool use and manufacture were a regular activity with evidence of planning, foresight and considerable technical skills (Delagnes and Roche 2005). In contrast, the timing of the human control of fre is not fully resolved and the antiquity of its habitual use has been debated until now. This book provides very strong evidence of the habitual use of fre by early humans at the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya aqov (Israel). The sedimentary sequence at the site is 34 m thick, and it represents different depositional environments, mainly beaches along the margins of a paleo-lake. The Matuyama-Brunhes chron boundary, dated to 0. 78 Ma, occurs in the lower part of the sequence."

Spis treści

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 THE EARLY EVIDENCE 1.2 IDENTIFYING FIRE: METHODS AND TECHNIQUES 1.3 THE ACHEULIAN SITE OF GESHER BENOT YA‘AQOV CHAPTER 2: FRAMEWORK OF RESEARCH 2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 2.2 HEARTH-RELATED SPATIAL PATTERNING 2.3 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES 2.4 METHODOLOGY CHAPTER 3: RESULTS 3.1 LAYER V-5 3.2 LAYER V-6 3.3 LAYER I-4 3.4 LAYER I-5 3.5 LAYER II-2/3 3.6 LAYER II-5 3.7 LAYER II-5/6 3.8 LAYER II-6 L-1 3.9 LAYER II-6 L-2 3.10 LAYER II-6 L-3 3.11 LAYER II-6 L-4 3.12 LAYER II-6 L-4b 3.13 LAYER II-6 L-5 3.14 LAYER II-6 L-6 3.15 LAYER II-6 L-7 CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 4.1 FIRE ECOLOGY 4.2 USE OF FIRE AT GBY 4.3 PATTERNS OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES AND FIRE AT GBY 4.4 PALEOLITHIC FIRE IN PERSPECTIVE 4.5 CONCLUSIONS Appendix 1. BURNED AND UNBURNED FLINT; MICROARTIFACTS Appendix 2. WORKING METHODOLOGY FOR ARCMAP GIS FILES Appendix 3. DENSITY MAPS Appendix 4. PROBABILITY OF A NATURAL WILDFIRE AT GBY Index of Sites Subject index

O autorze

Nira Alperson-Afil and Naama Goren-Inbar both teach prehistoric archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Their main research interest is the prehistory of the Levant, including technological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of our ancient ancestors.

Blurb

The manipulation of fire by early hominins was a turning point in our evolutionary history. Once "domesticated", fire provided warmth, light and protection from predators, as well as enabling the exploitation of a new range of foods. This book presents the spatial analyses of burned and unburned flint items which provide evidence for the controlled use of fire at the 790,000-year-old Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov (GBY). Clusters of burned flint, interpreted as the remnants of hearths, occur throughout the entire occupational sequence of the site. The fact that fire is repetitively used suggests that the knowledge of fire-making and the technological skills of the Acheulian hominins of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov enabled them to set fire at will in diverse environmental settings.

"Control of fire marks a significant landmark in human evolution, providing warmth, protection, and many new foods. This important volume compellingly shows that fire was already in regular use some 800,000 years ago." John D. Speth, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

"A major contribution to knowledge of early human fire history, the finds at Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov add immensely to the picture of our early ancestors by the fireside. The authors present a painstaking and multidimensional scientific investigation which should convince even sceptics of the importance of fire use in prehistory" John A.J. Gowlett, British Academy Centenary Research Project, The Archaeology of the Social Brain, UK