Neanderthals: an ecologically selective species? Experimental methods to research fire use in the Abric Romani rockshelter

尼安德特人对火有熟练的控制，而Abric Romani（西班牙Capellades）是大约55ka BP的一个关键的使用火的遗址。我的项目分析了罗曼尼人壁炉的木炭复制品，解决了尼安德特人燃料选择、生态知识和实验偏见的问题。将测试单个燃料种类的可燃性，并与我之前在硕士论文（未发表）中分析的尼安德特人数据进行比较，以证实尼安德特人是根据物种还是环境可用性选择燃料的。这对尼安德特人的认知能力以及他们与我们人类的相似性具有重要意义。更一般地说，我的实验将为解释旧石器时代和其他壁炉数据集提供重要的基准样本。这项研究将解决三个关键问题：“尼安德特人是根据木柴的易得性还是可燃性来选择木柴的？”、“不同燃料种类的木炭产量/存储量是否不同？”以及“阿布里克罗马人的壁炉是为了特定的功能而建造的吗？”为了评估第二个问题及其对第一个问题的影响，我将创建基准数据库，将木炭生产与12个属（Acer, Erica, Fraxinus, Hippophae, Juniperus, Olea, Prunus, Quercus, Salix, Sorbus， Betula和Pinus）的考古保存联系起来，以测试不同物种的木材到木炭的转化率，区分湿/干/腐烂和树皮/核心木材。-火坑建筑（石围、凹陷/半凹陷等）和点火方法（灌木、植被、无引火物等）。-不同树种的可燃性（包括湿/干/腐和树皮/核心木材）在锥形量热计上找到最佳燃料。-通过人工埋藏过程（如水渗透、粉碎）对木炭进行降解，证明哪种燃料的木炭最容易变得无法辨认。-各种物种作为引火物/主要燃料，以检查产生的木炭的相对数量，从而确定尼安德特人选择的相关物种作为引火燃料。-志愿者低估或错误识别某些物种的倾向，以及这种倾向是否随条件（新鲜/干燥/腐烂）而变化。-不同品种的干燥时间。-炉膛的功能/形状是否影响保存或解释。-各种火的功能（睡觉时的温暖，烹饪时的温暖，吸烟时的温暖，燧石热裂等），对周围的岩石碎片进行空间映射，并分析实验火坑中的遗骸，并与已发表的Abric Romani材料进行比较。许多尼安德特人的木炭来自混合的火，这使得人们不清楚不同的物种是在一次事件中一起燃烧，还是后来混合在一起。我将比较(1)多物种火灾和(2)不同物种在同一壁炉上多次再燃烧，并进行内部燃烧清理。在这种清理中幸存下来的东西将为壁炉清理提供代理，从而为尼安德特人的遗址管理提供代理。

Neanderthals had proficient control over fire, and Abric Romani (Capellades, Spain) is a key fire-using site from c.55ka BP. My project analyses charcoal from replica Abric Romani hearths, addressing questions of Neanderthal fuel choice, ecological knowledge and experimental bias. Individual fuel species will be tested for combustibility, and compared with Neanderthal data previously analysed in my Masters thesis (unpublished), to substantiate whether Neanderthals selected fuel by species or environmental availability. This has important implications for Neanderthal cognitive capacities and their similarity to our own species. More generally, my experiments will provide important benchmark samples for interpreting Palaeolithic and other hearth datasets.This research would address three key questions: 'Did Neanderthals select firewood based on its accessibility or combustibility?', 'Does charcoal production/survival vary between different fuel species?' and 'Were the Abric Romani hearths constructed for particular functions?' To assess the second question and its implications for the first, I will create benchmark databanks correlating charcoal production with archaeological preservation on twelve genera (Acer, Erica, Fraxinus, Hippophae, Juniperus, Olea, Prunus, Quercus, Salix, Sorbus, Betula and Pinus), to test:- Wood-to-charcoal conversion rates of various species, distinguishing between wet/dry/rotten and bark/core wood.- Fire-pit constructions (stone-enclosed, sunken/semi-sunken etc.) and fire-starting methods (brushwood, vegetation, no kindling etc.). - Different species' combustibility (including wet/dry/rotten and bark/core wood) on cone calorimeters to find optimal fuels.- Charcoal degradation through artificial taphonomic processes (e.g. water percolation, crushing), demonstrating which fuel's charcoal most easily becomes unrecognisable.- Various species as fire-starters/main fuels to examine relative quantities of charcoal produced, thus identifying relevant species Neanderthals chose as fire-starting fuels. - Volunteers' tendencies to under-identify or misidentify certain species, and if this varies with condition (fresh/dry/rotten).- Various species' drying times.- If hearth function/shape affects preservation or interpretation.- Various fire functions (warmth while sleeping, cooking, smoking, flint heat-cracking etc.), spatially mapping surrounding lithic fragments, and analysing remains in the experimental fire-pits with comparison to published Abric Romani material.Much Neanderthal charcoal is from commingled fires, making it unclear whether different species were burnt together in one event or became commingled later. I shall compare (1) multi-species fires and (2) multiple re-burnings of different species on the same hearth, with inter-burning cleaning episodes. What survives such cleaning will provide proxies for hearth clearances, and hence Neanderthal site management.