Overview

Our group conducts research on archaeological sites of all types. When we apply archaeological micromorphology to the study of sediment in archaeological sites, we typically encounter remnants of human use of fire. These remnants could range from small amounts of burned materials (charcoal, ash) to intact combustion features such as hearths or kilns. Some of our projects focus specifically on the combustion features, including their construction, function and post-depositional history. Published studies on these topics from our group are featured here.

The Ash Altar to Zeus on Mt. Lykaion, Greece

Ongoing micromorphological analyses at the ancient Greek athletic and religious complex on Mt. Lykaion includes work by Dr. Susan Mentzer on the formation and use of the ash altar. Located on the top of the mountain, this large open-air burning area contains the fragmented remains of burned animal bones, ashes and charcoal that resulted from sacrificial offerings to the god Zeus. The micromorphology revealed that the present-day soil on the top of the mountain is very different from other nearby soils that formed in areas that humans did not use.

link to publication

Burned plant bedding at the site of Sibhudu, South Africa

A study conducted in the early years of the Geoarchaeology Working Group, Prof. Paul Goldberg and Prof. Christopher Miller documented layers of burnt plant fragments in the site of Sibhudu that they interpreted as the remnants of a type of constructed floor covering – “bedding” – that was periodically burned. These findings inspired an archaeological experiment conducted with Dr. Chrissie Sievers that simulated the production and burning of bedding constructed from sedges. A series of publications resulted from this work, including an overview paper on the earliest bedding at the site, the micromorphological study, and the bedding experiment.

Fired lime plaster from Dosariyah, Saudi Arabia

This work was conducted by a large interdisciplinary team from the University of Tübingen. Initial analyses were conducted by Markus Seil as a Magister thesis project, and additional follow-up analyses were led by Dr. Susan Mentzer. The team investigated the composition, production history and use of a collection of suspected fired lime plaster fragments from the Neolithic site of Dosariyah, located in coastal Saudi Arabia. The plaster fragments were indeed identified as containing fired lime, possibly in association with hydraulic compounds, and elemental analyses in conjunction with the identification of marine fossils indicated that the plaster had been partially submerged under sea water during its use.

The published book chapter can be found in this volume, which detailed the entire results of the excavations conducted by the German-Saudi Dosariyah Archaeological Research Project (DARP) under the direction of Dr. Philipp Drechsler

Paleolithic hearths in Fumane Cave, Italy

This work was conducted by Dr. Diana Marcazzan as part of her doctoral dissertation at the University of Tübingen. Marcazzan studied a series of combustion features in Fumane Cave, Italy. The features – which included hearths as well as reworked deposits – date to the Mousterian period through the Uluzzian period and are thus attributed to both Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. Marcazzan supplemented her micromorphological analyses with organic petrology of the burned materials in collaboration with Dr. Bertrand Ligouis.

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Lower Paleolithic hearths at Schöningen?

The site of Schöningen in northern Germany is notable for its evidence of hominin hunting and butchery near a lakeshore. As part of her Ph.D. thesis, Dr Mareike Stahlschidt used micromorphology and other geochemical analyses to explore whether intact hearths were preserved at the site. Her results showed that the reddish surfaces suspected to be hearths did not contain materials that were heated, and instead formed as a result of iron oxidation of lake marl.

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Some selected publications from our group on the general topic of combustion

Mallol, C., Mentzer, S.M. and Miller, C.E., 2017. Combustion features. In Nicosia, C. and Stoops, G. (Eds.) Archaeological Soil and Sediment Micromorphology. Wiley pp.299-330.

Mentzer, S.M., 2014. Microarchaeological approaches to the identification and interpretation of combustion features in prehistoric archaeological sites. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 21(3), pp.616-668.

Goldberg, P., Miller, C.E. and Mentzer, S.M., 2017. Recognizing fire in the Paleolithic archaeological record. Current Anthropology, 58(S16), pp.S175-S190.