Fire and “Noise” in Late Paleolithic Camps: an Investigation of Issues in Locating Hearths

Abstract

AbstractThe acidic sandy environment of the Late Paleolithic sites on the North European Plain usually prevents preservation of not only organic debris such as burnt bones or charcoal but also heat-altered sediments or ash. Therefore, chemical analyses cannot be applied to identify traces of open fires. Instead, the detection of the location of hearths is approached through spatial statistics. This paper tests the utility of the methods which are most widely applied to solve the related research questions. Our analysis is accompanied by case studies on hearths at Late Paleolithic sites in Western Poland related to the Federmesser and Swiderian cultures. The discussion of the quadrant count method and kernel density analysis, ring and sector model, and nearest neighbor statistics show that the last named model is the most appropriate for locating Paleolithic hearths. A number of issues in the application of nearest neighbor statistics may be improved by the additional analysis of the vertical distribution of fire-affected artifacts and development of new approaches for identifying the areas affected by natural or human-made fires in the future.