Nira Alperson E-mail: alperson@mscc.huji.ac.il Ph. D. 2008, The Hebrew University

Abstract:

The manipulation of fire by early man was a turning point for our ancient ancestors. Once “domesticated”, fire enabled warmth and light, protection from predators, and the exploitation of a new range of foods. Archaeological, anthropological and sociological studies of the use of fire point to the controversial issue of when did humans obtain and control fire.
Evidence originating from the 790,000-year-old Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov provides a unique opportunity to examine this issue. Excavations at the site suggest that hominids repeatedly occupied the site for some 100,000 years, manufacturing stone tools, butchering and consuming animal carcasses, and collecting a vast range of plant foods. Flint artifacts and microartifacts found at the site include burned items that are easily identified: experimental studies show that exposure of flint to high temperatures (350-500ºC) results in distinctive thermal fractures.
The basic assumption of this research is that the presence and spatial aggregation of burned flint items provide direct evidence for the presence of fire. Using ArcInfo 0.8 (2D representation) and ArcScene (3D representation), distribution maps and density maps are generated for each of the archaeological occurrences. The association between the burned and non-burned artifacts is examined to detect possible clusters of burned items. Such clusters are interpreted as the remnants of hearths, suggesting that fire was used and controlled at the site. The role of fire in the culture and behavior of the site’s inhabitants is examined through the association between fire and other activities (e.g. knapping, butchering) carried out at each of the different archaeological occurrences.

Projects:

• The Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov: multidisciplinary research project based on excavations carried out in 1989-1997 (directed by Prof. N. Goren-Inbar).
• Paleo-routes; Acheulian land use from an ecological perspective (with Prof. N. Goren-Inbar and Dr. S. Ashkenazi).
• Construction of database of all Acheulian sites and find spots in Israel (with Prof. N. Goren-Inbar).
• Acheulian cultural diffusion: an application of ecological niche modelling to anthropological issues with a test case of the Acheulian landscape’s spatial distribution in the Levant (with Prof. N. Goren-Inbar and GARP, University of Kansas, Lawrence).

List of Publications