Evidence of wildfire versus anthropogenic combustion features: Spatial and macro-charcoal analyses of the final middle Paleolithic horizon at Orkhon 7, central Mongolia
D.V. Marchenko , S.V. Zhilich , E.P. Rybin , T.I. Nokhrina , D. Bazargur , B. Gunchinsuren , J.W. Olsen , A.M. Khatsenovich
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引用次数: 1
Abstract
This article examines the formation processes of combustion features at the Orkhon 7 Paleolithic site in central Mongolia, employing a new multifaceted approach that combines spatial analysis with computer learning and micro-charcoal analysis. We analyzed material from excavations conducted in the 1980s (Archaeological Horizon 3 in Pits 2 and 3) and carried out a spatial analysis. We also studied the distribution of macro-charcoal remains in samples taken from a 2019 excavation profile. The size-sorting hypothesis test allowed separating sub-horizons impacted by natural sorting of material. Spatial patterns were studied using k-means clustering and unconstrained clustering. Artifact assemblages associated with traces of combustion represented by decrepitate soil and charcoal lenses in both Pits 2 and 3 are characterized by high percentages of cores and shatter produced as the by-products of core reduction. Macro-charcoal analysis of the upper part of the stratigraphic column indicates that the presence of fire is not related to archaeological material found in proximity. These data, as well as paleoclimatic reconstructions and known analogies drawn from neighboring regions, indicate natural, rather than anthropogenic traces of combustion at the site.
期刊介绍：
Archaeological Research in Asia presents high quality scholarly research conducted in between the Bosporus and the Pacific on a broad range of archaeological subjects of importance to audiences across Asia and around the world. The journal covers the traditional components of archaeology: placing events and patterns in time and space; analysis of past lifeways; and explanations for cultural processes and change. To this end, the publication will highlight theoretical and methodological advances in studying the past, present new data, and detail patterns that reshape our understanding of it. Archaeological Research in Asia publishes work on the full temporal range of archaeological inquiry from the earliest human presence in Asia with a special emphasis on time periods under-represented in other venues. Journal contributions are of three kinds: articles, case reports and short communications. Full length articles should present synthetic treatments, novel analyses, or theoretical approaches to unresolved issues. Case reports present basic data on subjects that are of broad interest because they represent key sites, sequences, and subjects that figure prominently, or should figure prominently, in how scholars both inside and outside Asia understand the archaeology of cultural and biological change through time. Short communications present new findings (e.g., radiocarbon dates) that are important to the extent that they reaffirm or change the way scholars in Asia and around the world think about Asian cultural or biological history.
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