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Stancampiano LM, Rubio-Jara S, Panera J, Uribelarrea D, Pérez-González A, Magill CR. Organic geochemical evidence of human-controlled fires at Acheulean site of Valdocarros II (Spain, 245 kya). Sci Rep 2023; 13:7119. [PMID: 37202398 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-32673-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2022] [Accepted: 03/31/2023] [Indexed: 05/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Among the outstanding questions about the emergence of human-controlled fire is the systematic recurrence between the geochemical remains of fire and its preservation in the archaeological record, as the use of fire is considered a technological landmark, especially for its importance in food cooking, defensive strategies, and heating. Here we report fossil lipid biomarkers associated with incomplete combustion of organic matter at the Valdocarros II site, one of the largest European Acheulean sites in Spain dated to marine isotopic stage (MIS) 8/7 (~ 245 kya) allowing a multiproxy analysis of human-controlled fire use. Our results reveal isolated cases of highly concentrated and diverse polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and alkylated PAHs (APAHs), along with diagnostic conifer-derived triterpenoids in two hearth-like archaeological structures. The presence of combustion byproducts suggests the presence of anthropogenic (controlled) fires at Valdocarros-one of the oldest evidence of fire use in Europe-in association with Acheulean tools and bones. Hominins possibly used fire for two main activities, as a means of defense against predators and cooking. Our results help to better delineate major gaps in our current knowledge of human-controlled fire in the context of the Middle-Pleistocene in Europe and suggest that human ancestors were able to control fire before at least 250 kya.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lavinia M Stancampiano
- Lyell Centre for Earth & Marine Science & Technology, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Susana Rubio-Jara
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
- Instituto de Evolución en África (IDEA), Madrid, Spain
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Joaquín Panera
- Instituto de Evolución en África (IDEA), Madrid, Spain
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - David Uribelarrea
- Instituto de Evolución en África (IDEA), Madrid, Spain
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | | | - Clayton R Magill
- Lyell Centre for Earth & Marine Science & Technology, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK.
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Abstract
Pyrotechnology is a key element of hominin evolution. The identification of fire in early hominin sites relies primarily on an initial visual assessment of artifacts' physical alterations, resulting in potential underestimation of the prevalence of fire in the archaeological record. Here, we used a suite of spectroscopic techniques to counter the absence of visual signatures for fire and demonstrate the presence of burnt fauna and lithics at the Lower Paleolithic (LP) open-air site of Evron Quarry (Israel), dated between 1.0 and 0.8 Mya and roughly contemporaneous to Gesher Benot Ya'aqov where early pyrotechnology has been documented. We propose reexamining finds from other LP sites lacking visual clues of pyrotechnology to yield a renewed perspective on the origin, evolution, and spatiotemporal dispersal of the relationship between early hominin behavior and fire use.
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Middle Pleistocene fire use: The first signal of widespread cultural diffusion in human evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2101108118. [PMID: 34301807 PMCID: PMC8346817 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2101108118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Control of fire is one of the most important technological innovations within the evolution of humankind. The archaeological signal of fire use becomes very visible from around 400,000 y ago onward. Interestingly, this occurs at a geologically similar time over major parts of the Old World, in Africa, as well as in western Eurasia, and in different subpopulations of the wider hominin metapopulation. We interpret this spatiotemporal pattern as the result of cultural diffusion, and as representing the earliest clear-cut case of widespread cultural change resulting from diffusion in human evolution. This fire-use pattern is followed slightly later by a similar spatiotemporal distribution of Levallois technology, at the beginning of the African Middle Stone Age and the western Eurasian Middle Paleolithic. These archaeological data, as well as studies of ancient genomes, lead us to hypothesize that at the latest by 400,000 y ago, hominin subpopulations encountered one another often enough and were sufficiently tolerant toward one another to transmit ideas and techniques over large regions within relatively short time periods. Furthermore, it is likely that the large-scale social networks necessary to transmit complicated skills were also in place. Most importantly, this suggests a form of cultural behavior significantly more similar to that of extant Homo sapiens than to our great ape relatives.
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Sanz M, Daura J, Cabanes D, Égüez N, Carrancho Á, Badal E, Souto P, Rodrigues F, Zilhão J. Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal). Sci Rep 2020; 10:12053. [PMID: 32694542 PMCID: PMC7374095 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-68839-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2020] [Accepted: 06/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal), with evidence of human occupancy dating to ca. 400 ka (Marine Isotope Stage 11), is one of the very few Middle Pleistocene localities to have provided a fossil hominin cranium associated with Acheulean bifaces in a cave context. The multi-analytic study reported here of the by-products of burning recorded in layer X suggests the presence of anthropogenic fires at the site, among the oldest such evidence in south-western Europe. The burnt material consists of bone, charcoal and, possibly, quartzite cobbles. These finds were made in a small area of the cave and in two separate occupation horizons. Our results add to our still-limited knowledge about the controlled use of fire in the Lower Palaeolithic and contribute to ongoing debates on the behavioural complexity of the Acheulean of Europe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Montserrat Sanz
- Grup de Recerca del Quaternari (GRQ-SERP), Departament d'Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Carrer Montalegre, 6, 08001, Barcelona, Spain. .,UNIARQ-Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, 1600-214, Lisbon, Portugal.
| | - Joan Daura
- Grup de Recerca del Quaternari (GRQ-SERP), Departament d'Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Carrer Montalegre, 6, 08001, Barcelona, Spain.,UNIARQ-Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, 1600-214, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Dan Cabanes
- Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, Biological Sciences Building, 32 Bishop Street, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA
| | - Natalia Égüez
- Archaeological Micromorphology and Biomarkers, AMBI Lab, Instituto Universitario de Bio-Orgánica Antonio González, Universidad de La Laguna, 38206, Tenerife, Spain
| | - Ángel Carrancho
- Área de Prehistoria. Dpto. Historia, Geografía y Comunicación. Edificio I+D+i, Universidad de Burgos, Plaza Misael Bañuelos S/N, 09001, Burgos, Spain
| | - Ernestina Badal
- PREMEDOC-GIUV2015-213, Departament de Prehistòria, Arqueologia i Història Antiga, Universitat de València, Av. Blasco Ibañez 28, 46010, Valencia, Spain
| | - Pedro Souto
- STEA, Sociedade Torrejana de Espeleologia e Arqueologia, Quinta da Lezíria, 2350-510, Torres Novas, Portugal
| | - Filipa Rodrigues
- UNIARQ-Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, 1600-214, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - João Zilhão
- UNIARQ-Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, 1600-214, Lisbon, Portugal.,Departament d'Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Carrer Montalegre, 6, 08001, Barcelona, Spain.,Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Passeig Lluís Companys 23, 08010, Barcelona, Spain
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Hlubik S, Berna F, Feibel C, Braun D, Harris JWK. Researching the Nature of Fire at 1.5 Mya on the Site of FxJj20 AB, Koobi Fora, Kenya, Using High-Resolution Spatial Analysis and FTIR Spectrometry. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 2017. [DOI: 10.1086/692530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
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