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theses

Fire use by early hominin ancestors has caught fire in the academic and popular imagination. Discussions over what constitutes control, what evidence is appropriate, and how we interpret evidence within sites have contributed to a rigorous debate over when hominins began to exploit and rely on fire as a cultural tool. Physical evidence from Homo erectus indicates a major shift in behavior around 2 million years ago (mya); H. erectus is taller than previous hominins, with smaller teeth, a smaller gut, and a larger brain. These morphological changes indicate a behavioral change to a higher quality diet with greater energetic return, which could have been achieved by cooking both plant and animal foods. Many debates about early fire have centered around the paucity of sites in the early archaeological record, between 2 and 1 mya, as proof that fire was not significant to humans until about 350 thousand years ago (kya), when near-modern ancestors were prevalent throughout the globe, and archaeological evidence for fire is much more common. Some researchers have begun looking for evidence in earlier sites to determine whether fire was present and in what capacity. The issues surrounding the recovery and identification of fire evidence from early sites include the number of unprotected, or open-air, sites, and the lack of knowledge surrounding the diagenetic processes that could be affecting fire evidence. This dissertation details the work done at FxJj20 AB, a site in Koobi Fora, Kenya, dated to 1.6 mya, with potential evidence of fire use in the Early Pleistocene. The work includes a number of experiments to establish a baseline of what types of evidence might be present from the lithic material and sediment unique to the site, meticulous excavation of the site itself with extensive sampling for Micromorphological geological analysis, and Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometry (FTIR); Micromorphological analysis is used to look at the integrity of the site as well as to evaluate fire evidence, while FTIR is used to investigate the thermal history of recovered materials. Spatial analysis of the recovered materials from the site is used to show clustering of materials and interpret associations, and orientation analysis is used to determine whether there is evidence for movement of materials by water or other geological processes. The results of the work done here show that fire was present on the site, and indicate that this fire was associated with the hominins occupying the site. FTIR identified over 40 instances of burnt bone and sediment, and spatial analysis showed these burnt materials were clustered within the largest cluster of lithic materials on the site. Orientation analysis indicated no movement of materials by water, and the burned and unburnt materials are mixed in the vertical dispersion. Together this indicates that the evidence for fire on FxJj20 AB is associated with hominin behavior and is likely the result of hominin-controlled fire. Chapter 2 of the dissertation was published in the summer of 2017 in Current Anthropology; the citation for this paper is: Hlubik, S., F. Berna, C. Feibel, D. Braun, J. Harris (2017). Researching the nature of fire at 1.5 mya on the site of FxJj20 AB, Koobi Fora, Kenya, using high-resolution spatial analysis and FTIR spectrometry, Current Anthropology 58(S16): S243-S257 Chapter 3 of the dissertation has been submitted for publication and is under review in the Journal of Human Evolution, to be part of a special issue on research in Koobi Fora of the Okote Member. The list of co-authors is: Sarah Hlubik, Russell Cutts, David R. Braun, Francesco Berna Craig Feibel, John W.K. Harris. Chapter 4 of the dissertation has been prepared for submission to the Journal of Archaeological Sciences and is being submitted for review. The list of coauthors is: Sarah Hlubik, David Braun, Francesco Berna, Craig Feibel, Russel Cutts, John WK Harris S. Hlubik is the primary author of the papers that have been submitted, or will be submitted, and has done the bulk of the writing with some contributions from the coauthors.

ETD_8661

doi:10.7282/T3571G7C

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Sarah K. Hlubik

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.