Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal)

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 multianalytic 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 southwestern 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. Controlling the use of fire was a technological milestone in human evolution that broadened diet, expanded the ecological range, and provided a powerful defensive and offensive tool 1-4. It required a complex mind, capable of predicting fire behaviour and fuel needs, and imposed high energetic costs 5. Identifying the point in human

Night Capture of Roosting Cave Birds by Neanderthals: An Actualistic Approach

“…Dazzling and bewilderment could be promoted by the light of torches or even through controlled fires with parapets of branches at the entrance to the cavities, both also producing heat, noise and smoke increasing confusion in the choughs. In fact, Neanderthals mastered the use of fire all along their existence as a species from about 400-300,000 years ago (Roebroeks and Villa, 2011;Sanz et al, 2020;MacDonald et al, 2021), and the use of constructions inside of long caves in total absence of natural light also testifies of the use of fire for illumination (Jaubert et al, 2016). This would support Neanderthal use of fire for hunting and, to our knowledge, this is the first documented suggestion of social hunting of birds at night with the help of fire technology.…”

Acheulean variability in Western Europe: The case of Menez-Dregan I (Plouhinec, Finistère, France)

“…Bone tools only rarely survive, but dispersed evidence reflects widespread use (Brühl, 2003;Julien et al, 2015;van Kolfschoten et al, 2015;Moigne et al, 2016;Zutovski and Barkai, 2016). Alongside these developments we see better evidence for fireuse from MIS 11 at Beeches Pit (UK), Terra Amata (France) and Gruta da Aroeira (Portugal), together with MDI (Gowlett et al 2005;Roebroeks and Villa, 2011;de Lumley et al, 2015;Sanz et al, 2020).…”

Middle Pleistocene fire use: The first signal of widespread cultural diffusion in human evolution

“…Studies published following this review have strengthened this pattern and identified its existence beyond Europe. In the Gruta da Aroeira cave site (Portugal), for example, fire proxies in the form of heated bones start to appear in layers dated to 400 ka ( 29 ). At Bolomor Cave (Spain), 14 hearths associated with heated materials have been excavated from multiple levels dating from 350 to 100 ka ( 30 ).…”

“…However, the anthropogenic status of most of the pre–400-ka traces remains controversial (see, e.g., refs. 19 , 29 and 59 – 62 ): as an example, the origin of 1.5-Ma-old reddened patches of sediments at the FxJj20, Koobi Fora, Kenya, has been debated from initial publication four decades ago to the present day ( 56 , 57 , 59 , 63 , 64 ). An in-depth review of the pre–400-ka evidence is beyond the remit of our paper, but the record from several distinctive landscapes illustrates the isolated and problematic nature of the early fire record.…”