New evidence on Neandertal use of fire: Examples from Roc de Marsal and Pech de l’Azé IV Paul Goldberg a , Harold Dibble b, c, d, * , Francesco Berna a , Dennis Sandgathe c, e , Shannon J.P. McPherron c , Alain Turq f a Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, USA b Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA c Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany d Institute for Human Origins, Arizona State University, USA e Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada f Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies, PACEA, UMR 5199 du CNRS, France article info Article history: Available online xxx abstract Pyrotechnology must be seen as one of the most important technological developments in human prehistory. Once developed it eventually came to serve a wide range of applications, but when this actually occurred is not well understood. Fire is well known at a number of Middle Palaeolithic sites in Western Europe, and the Neandertals of this region clearly made use of it at some times and at some sites. Recent excavations at two generally contemporaneous Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Dordogne region of France, Pech de l’Azé IV and Roc de Marsal, have provided significant data on Neandertal use of fire. Both sites have revealed a number of extremely well preserved and delineated fire features at the base of their sequences. The goals of this paper are to describe and contrast the combustion features from these two sites using both field observations and laboratory data that employ micromorphological and FTIR techniques. Pyrotechnological differences can be seen, representing differences in Neandertal fire use and, potentially, site use. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The intentional use of fire by early hominins begins by at least 250 ka (e.g., Mercier et al., 2007), or possibly 400 ka (Hallegouet et al., 1992; Monnier et al., 1994). Fire played a multifunctional role in human history: a source of warmth, light, and a means for cooking; it could also serve to discourage carnivores, clear areas of vegetation, and be used for the smoking and drying of meat, among others. It also plays a role in the way human activities were spa- tially organized within a group or site (e.g., Binford, 1996). Neandertal use of fire is well known from certain European sites [e.g., Abric Romaní - (Vaquero et al., 2001); Cova Bolomor (Fernández Peris, 2003); El Salt (Gómez de la Rua and Mallol, 2010); Riparo L’Oscurusciuto and Riparo del Molare (Boscato and Ronchitelli, 2008)] and is well documented from sites in the Near East [e.g., Kebara and Hayonim Caves (Meignen et al., 2007; Berna and Goldberg, 2008)]. Less well-known occurrences of Neandertal fire – but clearly no less significant – were recently revealed during the excavations of two Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Dordogne region of France: Pech de l’Azé IV and Roc de Marsal (Fig. 1). New excavations at both sites over the past ten years revealed a set of extremely well preserved and delineated fire features at the base of both sequences, and modern methods of recovery coupled with micromorphological analyses and techniques such as casting and three dimensional scanning, have been critical to discovering and documenting these features. The goals of this paper are to describe and contrast combustion features from these generally contemporary sites. The analysis makes use of both field observations and laboratory data that employ micromorphological and FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry) techniques. The goal is to demonstrate that pyro- technological differences can be seen, representing differences in Neandertal fire use and, potentially, site use. Observations and measurements made in the field and within the contextually de- fined area of the thin sections allow integration of the results from each analytical technique within the space of the deposits and allows for direct comparisons among combustion features, both * Corresponding author. Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylva- nia, Philadelphia, USA. E-mail address: hdibble@sas.upenn.edu (H. Dibble). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint 1040-6182/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2010.11.015 Quaternary International xxx (2010) 1e16 Please cite this article in press as: Goldberg, P., et al., New evidence on Neandertal use of fire: Examples from Roc de Marsal and Pech de l’Azé IV, Quaternary International (2010), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2010.11.015