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(A) Map of the global distribution of Lower Paleolithic sites (> 500,000 y old), including those with evidence associating hominins and fire (red circles) (WW, Wonderwerk Cave; SW, Swartkrans; GBY, Gesher Benot Ya'aqov; CN, Cueva Negra; and KF, Koobi Fora). EQ, Evron Quarry (this study). (B) The Levantine geographic location of other roughly contemporaneous Levant sites, including AZ, Azraq; ZA, Zarqa; MB, Ma'ayan Baruch; UB, 'Ubeidiya; KM, Kefar Menahem; BR, Bitzat Ruhama; ZH, Nahal Zihor; NA, Nadaouiyeh; and LA, Latamne, from which artifacts could be reexamined to potentially expose hidden information on pyrotechnology-related activities. All maps were generated using ArcGIS Pro software.
Source publication
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 a...
Contexts in source publication
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... the assemblage's size range and tool types, including flakes, retouched flakes, and one core (SI Appendix, Fig. S3 and Table S1). To estimate the temperature to which the selected Evron Quarry artifacts had been heated, we used ultraviolet (UV) Raman spectroscopy and a DL model (one-dimensional convolutional neural network [1D-CNN]) (SI Appendix, Fig. S4) pretrained on modern flint collected from different flint sources throughout Israel and heated to known temperatures under laboratory-controlled conditions (20). This methodology relies on irreversible heat-induced structural modifications that occur to organic and inorganic components of flint while overcoming its intrinsic ...
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... overcoming its intrinsic variability. The advantage of using DL for temperature estimation is that DL models can approximate any nonlinear decision boundaries between heat and the resulting spectral modifications in α-quartz, moganite, and the D and G band spectral regions (20). For this study, we developed an improved DL model (SI Appendix, Fig. S4) relative to our previous study (20) with reduced mean absolute error between the true and estimated temperatures from 118 °C to 103 °C and improved Pearson's correlation coefficient between the true and estimated temperatures from 0.72 (degrees of freedom [d.f.] = 1,567, P = 1.8 × 10 À251 , effect size = 0.72, 95% confidence interval ...
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... this study, we have demonstrated the association of burnt tusk and burnt lithics within a clearly defined archaeological horizon at the LP open-air site of Evron Quarry, adding a new LP site to a handful of archaeological sites with evidence associating early hominin-produced artifacts and fire (Fig. 4A). At this stage, we cannot conclusively establish the role of hominins in the presence of fire in the archaeological context at Evron Quarry. The association of artifacts and fauna in such an openair context might simply reflect the impact of natural fire on the landscape. At the neighboring site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (7,8), spatial ...
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... approach highlights the possibility of extracting "hidden" information on pyrotechnology-related activities from artifacts beyond the classical visual initial assessment. Thus, we propose reexamining artifacts unearthed from other LP sites, including those located in the Levant (Fig. 4B) may potentially broaden our spatiotemporal understanding of the relationship between early hominins and fire and its potential implications for transmission (3) and dispersal paths (11) of fire-related knowledge at the local and global ...
Citations
... Humans have been using fire for hundreds of thousands of years: the intentional use of fire traces back to the Middle Pleistocene of the Levant [13,14] but understandably spread as a common practice just afterwards [15]. Whereas the earliest fire usage may suggest cooking and anti-predatory activities, the more widespread use of fire to repel predators and allow extra-social interactions may have led to a "daylight extension", in which humans have developed an activity peak during late evening hours, an unusual condition compared to the mammalian standard, including other primates [16]. ...
Human influence has historically exerted a major driving in creating novel ecological niches. Although
the controlled use of fire by ancient humans probably played a significant role by attracting positive
phototactic prey and favour foraging by insectivorous vertebrates, no study has ever explored this
possibility. Using a multidisciplinary approach, we explore whether human-controlled fire has historically
affected the temporal niche partitioning in two lineages of Moorish geckos Tarentola mauritanica, a diurnal-
dark form and a nocturnal-pale form. We showed that the nocturnal-pale variant possesses lower skin
melanin for fewer and smaller melanosomes and experiences lower α-MSH plasmatic levels than its
diurnal-dark counterpart. Additionally, the analysis of the full mitochondrial genome established that our
pale-nocturnal lineage emerged around 40,000 years ago, i.e., 20,000 years before the dark-diurnal lineage.
Both variants arose when modern humans expanded into Europe, coinciding with the widespread use of
fire, which likely facilitated the availability of arthropod prey for pale geckos, opening a previously
untapped niche. Our modelling exercises corroborated a highly probable human-geckos coexistence
during the emergence of these lineages. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrated that fire near a
rock surface significantly increases the abundance of arthropod prey, attracting preferred prey for the
pale variant during nocturnal foraging. We suggest that ancient fires likely provided a novel foraging niche
for pale geckos, yet it remains unclear whether the two lineages originated from diurnal or nocturnal
ancestors. We present two alternative interpretations: the "out of the dark" scenario proposes a nocturnal
ancestor leading to a diurnal descendant, while the "into the dark" scenario suggests a dark-diurnal
ancestor evolving into a pale-nocturnal lineage. Phenotypic plasticity emerges as a critical factor in both
scenarios, facilitating adaptation to new environments. We underscore the ongoing impact of artificial
lighting on nocturnal behaviour, offering parallels to the potential origins of the gecko's nocturnal lineage.
... Humans have engaged in forms of traditional fire management for countless millennia, particularly in areas prone to wildfires where vegetation has evolved to withstand frequent fire occurrences (Stepka et al., 2022). World-wide, there is no doubt that these cultural fires shaped regrowth dynamics and ultimately resulted in landscapes that bears unmistakable . ...
... Fire is both a natural disturbance process and a tool used by people world-wide for at least 800,000 years (Stepka et al., 2022). Where vegetation is fire-adapted, modern and historicallyknown hunter-gatherer groups are more likely to use fire for land and resource management (Coughlan et al., 2018). ...
Paleoecology and paleolandscape modeling have the potential to differentiate cultural burning from climatic fires, improving interpretations of past fire histories and vegetation resource management practices. People have conducted variations of traditional fire management to increase terrestrial resources for hundreds of millennia, commonly in fire-prone areas where vegetation is adapted to frequent fire events. Over time, these cultural fires influenced regrowth and led to an anthropogenically-modified landscape. For some non-agrarian, semi-nomadic societies, such as the pre-Colonial groups within what is now known as California, identifying anthropogenic landscapes is difficult because of a lack of domesticated plant remains in the environmental record to indicate where human impacts occurred. This paper uses case studies from the central and southern Sierra Nevada range in California to explore the potential of paleoecology, specifically pollen and sedimentary charcoal, and spatially-explicit paleolandscape modeling to identify and distinguish periods of cultural burning in mountainous forests to improve archaeological interpretations of human-fire dynamics. Specifically, I use climate-vegetation dynamics and cluster analysis to look at temporal relationships of change between sites. These case studies are ideal because (1) the region is naturally fire-prone, (2) study sites are typically well-dated and analyzed at a sub-centennial resolution, (3) study sites are associated with archaeological sites, and (4) indigenous groups were proto-agricultural, balanophagy societies known to practice cultural burning. These case study sites show a strong potential to identify periods of cultural burning that help better inform archaeological interpretations and show synchronous evidence for cultural burning during the Little Ice Age (1250-1850). Furthermore, these studies provide better dated timelines of human influence at each site than nearby archaeological studies, indicating that in certain locales, paleoecological studies with high temporal resolutions could be used to inform the timing of archaeological activities and shifts.
... Consequently, temperature estimations for heated Pleistocene archaeological bones are less exact and researchers employ broad categories for heating temperature reconstruction. For example, a recent analysis of bone and tusk from the site of Evron Quarry, Israel, utilized only the PHT peak to identify evidence of heating above ~ 600 °C (Stepka et al. 2022). The analysis yielded a small but significant population of tusk fragments that had been heated to relatively high temperatures. ...
... For heating temperature estimates, we relied on more detailed analysis that are based on bones reacting to heat exposure in specific ways on a crystalline and compositional level controlled by temperature. We used FTIR analysis to reconstruct heating temperature as is commonly done for early evidence of fire (Berna et al. 2012;Stepka et al. 2022). ...
Heat-altered bones are a common occurrence in the archaeological record, and their analysis can provide detailed insights into past fire use behaviors and subsistence strategies. Heat-altered bones, however, may also result from natural fire events such as wildfires that are unrelated to human activity. We currently lack robust reference materials from natural fire events, analyzed using the same methodological approaches as we apply them to archaeological assemblages, that can be used to differentiate between natural and anthropogenic origins of heated materials. Here, we studied an assemblage of 50 tortoises that perished in a brushfire in Cape Point, South Africa. We used a combination of (1) zooarchaeological assessments of heating pattern and (2) infrared spectroscopy including a heating experiment to reconstruct heating temperatures with the aim to document the fire impact on the tortoise remains. For both approaches, we used statistical models to develop and test predictions that can also be applied to archaeological material. Our analyses suggest a quickly moving and low temperature brushfire in the study region with a generally low and superficial heating impact on the tortoise remains. However, we also observed several high-temperature alterations with calcination and speculate that naturally occurring fuel sources controlled the severity of the fire impact. The evidence of heating on the tortoise was unpatterned. We conclude that temperature alone presents a low confidence deciding factor between wildfires and campfires while skeletal heating pattern, in concert with other contextual analysis, may be able to facilitate this distinction with more localized heating signatures for campfires.
... Thompson et al., 2009;Legan et al., 2020), flint debitages (Weiner et al., 2015;Yegorov et al., 2020) and sediments (e.g. Berna et al., 2007;Chu et al., 2008;Gur-Arieh et al., 2013;Haaland et al., 2017;Monnier, 2018;Stepka et al., 2022). It allows for the fast and non-destructive or minimal-invasive analyses of large sample numbers with minute sample quantities, as is required for the analyses of material from more intensively settled sites. ...
FTIR analyses were tested as reliable for the fast identification of heated sandstones from archaeological contexts and the differentiation of thermal activities. FTIR spectra of experimentally heated sandstone samples reveal distinctive peak changes depending on heating intensity. The method was applied to stone slabs from the late Mesolithic/ early Neolithic site of Neustadt LA 156 (Northern Germany), in order to reconstruct their individual functions in relation to fire and with this, hearth activities and hearth constructions. FTIR analyses prove different heat exposures of the individual stones that point to diverse functions in relation to fire and partly contradict assumptions from visual inspection. Most stones have been slightly to moderately heated, often from one side only, potentially taking advantage of the good heat capacity of sandstone. This case study for the identification of heated sandstones from archaeological contexts builds a basis for reconstructions of fire use, hearth constructions and thermal energy management in the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic, which played an important role in the intensified land use systems.
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1giUa,rVDBfl1T
... New analyses at Evron Quarry, also in the Levant, have recently revealed spectroscopic evidence for fire use, in the absence of visual signatures, at 1.0e0.8 ma (Stepka et al., 2022). These claims are not universally accepted by archaeologists, but the next cases of fire use in the Levant at <400 ka are clear (Karkanas et al., 2007;Shimelmitz et al., 2014). ...
The places in which people live, sleep, prepare food, and undertake other activities-known variably as homes, residential sites, living sites, and domestic spaces-play a key role in the emergence and evolution of modern human culture. The dynamic influence of domestic spaces began early in human evolutionary history, during the Paleolithic/Stone Age. Drawing on examples from Africa and western Eurasia, this article explores aspects of the changing social and cultural significance of domestic spaces throughout this time using several lines of evidence: repeated site visitation, behavioral structuring of living spaces, and information gained by dissecting palimpsest records. With the development of pyrotechnology, living sites become hearth-centered domestic spaces that provided a common hub for activities. Through time the activities around hearths increased in their complexity and diversity. The parsing of palimpsest records by archaeologists also reveals changes in the nature, variety, and intensity of on-site activities through time, indicating shifts in site function and the spatial expression of cultural norms. Archaeological evidence shows that the entwined development of domestic spaces and human cultural activities was gradual, albeit nonlinear from the Lower Paleolithic through the Upper Paleolithic/later Middle Stone Age. In this process, domestic spaces emerged as common arenas of opportunity for social interaction and knowledge transmission, qualities that may have contributed to and enhanced the development of cumulative culture in Paleolithic society.
... New analyses at Evron Quarry, also in the Levant, have recently revealed spectroscopic evidence for fire use, in the absence of visual signatures, at 1.0e0.8 ma (Stepka et al., 2022). These claims are not universally accepted by archaeologists, but the next cases of fire use in the Levant at <400 ka are clear (Karkanas et al., 2007;Shimelmitz et al., 2014). ...
To differentiate between “tools” and “debris”, lithic analysts usually rely on the presence or absence of retouch, traces of use-wear, or extrapolation of the “desired end products” through the reconstruction of the chaîne opératoire. These methods usually fail to identify the full range of unretouched lithics utilized, especially at the assemblage scale. The spatial context of lithic pieces is often overlooked as an additional tool to identify tool selection. This paper presents the results of a study of seven open-air Middle Paleolithic sites in France, where lithic production and selection can be segregated in space. Two interrelated methods are utilized, one which relies on refitting data and the other which focuses on the differential spatial distribution of lithic artifacts. At these sites, the selected lithics identified using these methods match up well with what archaeologists have long thought to be “desired end products” but many of these sought pieces were also left with the manufacturing debris, indicating that lithics were produced in mass irrespective of immediate demand. The methods presented in this paper can therefore provide answers to many salient questions regarding lithic production and selection and are applicable to any context where lithic production has a strong spatial signature.
This chapter explores the nature of the Paleo-Anthropocene of Israel, starting with the earliest human occupation in the region that served as a catalyst for subsequent changes in the physical and biotic landscapes. Focusing on human impacts to the natural and physical environment, we detail four key stages that served as pivotal events in the evolution of anthropogenic activities: (1) the “Natural Ecosystem and Landscape” that characterized the landscape inhabited by early hunter-gatherers starting ~ 1.5 Ma years BP; (2) the advent and progress of “Human Niche Construction” beginning ~ 12,500 BCE; (3) the establishment of an “Anthropogenic Ecosystem” starting ~ 3300 BCE; and (4) the transformation of the country to a “Total Anthropogenic Ecosystem and Landscape” ~ 1200 CE. Each stage marked a progression, that was characterized by an acceleration in the pace and extent of human intervention. Thus, the present-day Israeli landscape and ecosystems are not ‘natural’, but should be considered as the direct outcome of a series of anthropogenic interventions.
Humans need food processing assuring food safety, quality, and functionality to sustain their life. The ongoing debates regarding food processing require rational and scientific data about food processing and processed foods. This study deals with the importance, origins, and history of processing, defining processes and discussing existing food classification systems and provides recommendations for future food process development. Descriptions and comparisons of technologies for food preservation, their resource efficiency, and beneficial aspects in relation to traditional processing are summarized. Possibilities for pretreatments or combination application and related potentials are provided. A consumer‐oriented paradigm change is presented using the potential of resilient technologies for food product improvements rather than the traditional adaptation of raw materials to existing processes. Means for food science and technology research toward dietary changes by transparent, gentle, and resource‐efficient processes for consumers food preference, acceptance, and needs are provided.
