Prehistoric stove

The researchers generally agree that the fire was decisive to survive during the last ice age – that is, in Europe, there is a surprisingly little evidence on the stove in the most beautiful years, between 26500 and 19,000 years.

By studying three prehistoric stoves in Ukraine, a team of researchers has gained a new vision on how to use the fire during the harshest of the Ice Age. As is detailed in a Ticket It was published earlier this month in GeoARCHEOEOLOGY, side fires reveal tips from the advanced fiery river, including the potential use of bones and fats of fuel.

Philip t said. Negs, one of the senior authors of the study and an archaeologist at the University of Vienna, at a university: “The fire was not only related to warmth, but it was also necessary to cook and make tools and social gatherings.” statement. Although the archaeological registry confirms that the fisherman’s university in Europe built fires throughout the uppercuts of the Alevi Stone Age (45,000 to 10,000 years ago), there is a gap of about 7,500 years coinciding with the coldest years of the ice age.

“We know that the fire was widespread before and after this period, but there is a few evidence of the height of the Ice Age,” said William Morfri, another leader and the generous scientist at Al -Gharf University.

Now, new evidence from Ukraine helps fill this gap. The researchers achieved three old stoves dating back to the heart of another iceberg. The old fireplace, which was excavated in 2013 on the archaeological site Korman ‘, to between 23,000 and 21,000 years, and provides a rare glimpse of how the people of the Ice Age used when they were needed.

Scientists used geological methods such as Microstataigraphic analysis (Technology to study geographic classes with high accuracy), micromorphology (Study soil and sediments at the microscopic level) and Color analysis (Technology to detect chemical compounds).

Analyzes revealed that the fires amounted to more than 1112 degrees Fahrenheit (600 ° C), indicating that European fishermen colleges have a deep knowledge of the construction of fires (the hotter fire More efficient burning). While the three fires were open and flat, researchers indicate that they were intentionally built and used differently depending on the season. For example, one of the stove was larger and thicker – which reached the highest temperatures.

“People have completely dominated the fire and know how to use it in different ways, depending on the purpose of the fire. But our results also show that these fishermen used the same place at different times of the year during their annual migrations,” explained.

Margolin d. Bush, who is an author of the study and the University of Vienna, “While the work of the researchers indicates that the fires were often nurtured by the spruce,“ some of the bones of the animals on the site were burned in a fire at a temperature of more than 650 ° C ”. I was used as fuel or burned by mistake. “

The research sheds light on one of the first and most important techniques that humans have ever developed. However, three prehistoric stoves are not enough, and it is not sufficient to bridge the deprived gap in the archaeological registry, and therefore the secret of the fiery river remains during the peak of the ice age without a solution.