> The packed sediments were then transported to the laboratory for further sorting. A program of sediment sorting, that lasted over two decades, included the separation of different types of categories: ostracods, mollusks, reptiles, amphibians, micromammals, fish and macrobotanical remains, in addition to different types of small rocks.
Incredible. They didn’t find intact hunks of charcoal (obviously), but instead they _sorted through sediment_ to find grains which they then identified under a microscope.
The site also has been dated to ~790,000 years old. Also was hard to find in a quick skim. So, direct evidence of the types of firewood humans have been using for the better part of a million years. Neat.
It shouldn't. It's been extensively documented among modern human groups.
The major question is how much our understanding from recent forager groups applies to pleistocene foragers ("ethnographic analogy"). I'm in the generally skeptical camp. Many other anthropologists aren't, particularly those in older generations.
>It's been extensively documented among modern human groups.
Do you have some sources? A quick search doesn't pull up much evidence for current hunter-gatherer dependence on natural fire regime. Or you mean anatomically modern humans?
Yes, Tasmanians are the best example that comes to mind. They had a mythology developed around lightning and subsequent fires and would then try to keep a fire going as long as possible.
The Pleistocene lasts from 2.58 million years ago, maybe the first time our ancestors figured out tools, to 11,000 years ago, when we Homo sapiens had been around for ~200,000 years. Isn't that too wide a range of humans and ancestors to characterize in one group?
Are you skeptical about 11 kya ancestors doing similar things? Why?
from the paper: "The consideration of fire ecology data and various factors involved in the complex process of fire ignition, combustion, and behavior, in relation to the GBY paleoenvironment and archaeology, enabled the rejection of recurrent natural fires as the responsible agent for burning (Alperson-Afil, 2012)."
Incredible. They didn’t find intact hunks of charcoal (obviously), but instead they _sorted through sediment_ to find grains which they then identified under a microscope.
Archaeology is such a cool field.
GBV continues to be the band, who are due to release albums with each of these names within the next five years.
The major question is how much our understanding from recent forager groups applies to pleistocene foragers ("ethnographic analogy"). I'm in the generally skeptical camp. Many other anthropologists aren't, particularly those in older generations.
Do you have some sources? A quick search doesn't pull up much evidence for current hunter-gatherer dependence on natural fire regime. Or you mean anatomically modern humans?
Here is a nice report: Fire-Making in Tasmania: Absence of Evidence Is Not Evidence of Absence , Gott 2016: https://sci-hub.su/10.1086/342430
The Pleistocene lasts from 2.58 million years ago, maybe the first time our ancestors figured out tools, to 11,000 years ago, when we Homo sapiens had been around for ~200,000 years. Isn't that too wide a range of humans and ancestors to characterize in one group?
Are you skeptical about 11 kya ancestors doing similar things? Why?