Processes of Formation and Alteration of Archaeological Fire Structures: Complexity Viewed in the Light of Experimental Approaches

The aim of this article is to present an experimental approach for studying the formation and transformation processes of archaeological fire structures. We present a synthetic review of our experimental project, which was developed in many different natural archaeological contexts. We report the re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of archaeological method and theory 2014-03, Vol.21 (1), p.1-45
Main Authors: March, Ramiro Javier, Lucquin, Alexandre, Joly, Delphine, Ferreri, Juan Carlos, Muhieddine, Mohamad
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Archaeology
Archaeology and Prehistory
Ashes
Charcoal
Combustion
Experiments
Fires
Humanities and Social Sciences
Prehistoric era
Sedimentary soils
Sediments
Silts
Silty soils
Social Sciences
Soil organic matter
Structure fires
Taphonomy
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Summary:The aim of this article is to present an experimental approach for studying the formation and transformation processes of archaeological fire structures. We present a synthetic review of our experimental project, which was developed in many different natural archaeological contexts. We report the results and problems associated with experimental fires lit on different kinds of soils and in different environments, followed by the observation of natural and anthropic transformations. Finally, we analyse the nature and significance of these results for the archaeological interpretation process, while describing some general trends and showing the complexity of the approach.
ISSN:1072-5369
1573-7764
DOI:10.1007/s10816-012-9134-7