From Evenk campfires to prehistoric hearths: charcoal analysis as a tool for identifying the use of rotten wood as fuel

We present a new approach combining ethnoarchaeology and experimentation aiming towards a better understanding of prehistoric firewood use and management. The example of present fuel management practices among a residentially mobile group of Evenk Siberian reindeer herders, shows how ethnoarchaeology can provide an analytical background for the study of complex man environment interrelations. Ethnographic observation confirmed in particular that the moisture content and structural soundness of the wood can be linked to hearth function: rotten conifers for instance, are used for hide smoking by several groups living in the boreal forests of the Northern hemisphere. Charcoal samples from an Evenk hearth fed with rotten Larix cajanderi (Siberian larch) showed a high proportion of microscopic features diagnostic of fungal alterations. A series of systematic experimental combustions on Pinus sylvestris (scots Pine) confirmed the existence of a relationship between the frequency and the intensity of fungal alterations visible after the combustion and the initial state of the wood used in the hearth. The establishment of an alteration index allows now to take a new parameter, the structural soundness of the wood, into account when performing archaeological charcoal analyses. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.