Carolina Mallol, Lucia Leierer and Rory Connolly working in Abric del Pastor
As every summer, archaeological excavations are carried out at Abric del Pastor and El Salt sites (Alcoy, Alicante) from July to the end of August. The work is part of a research project directed by Bertila Galván, Cristo Hernández and Carolina Mallol and funded by the Spanish Ministry Economy and Competitivity (MINECO).
ULL Media is currently preparing a documentary about our work at the sites. Our goal is to show the general audience the different tasks that take place at a Palaeolithic excavation and the different lines of research that can provide information about the human past.
During the months of May and June, members of the PALEOCHAR team conducted fieldwork at the Middle Palaeolithic site of Crvena Stijena in Montenegro.
Current research at the site, directed by professor Gil Tostevin from the University of Minnesota, aims at providing palaeoenvironmental and behavioral information with an interdisciplinary approach. Our role in the project is to study the sedimentary record using soil micromorphology and biomarker analysis as our main analytical tools.
Rory Connolly and Lucia Leierer participated in the excavations and collected samples for micromorphology and biomarkers. Dr Margarita Jambrina-Enriquez, geochemist expert in palaeoenviromental reconstruction, also collaborates in this project and carried out biomarker sampling at the site during this season.
The ERC PALEOCHAR teamwork started making experimental fires to provide a reference collection of burnt fats. Dr Tammy Buonasera works on molecular and isotopic biomarkers to characterize animal fats in archaeological context. The aim of these analyses is to determine what these fats are and which animals were consumed.
ERC Paleochar experimental fire
The PALEOCHAR project examines how Neanderthal diet, fire technology, settlement patterns, and surrounding vegetation at a local scale (individual sites) were affected by changing climatic conditions.
Our recent experimental and geoarchaeological work on Palaeolithic fire has led to the discovery of black layers from archaeological fireplaces as invaluable contexts of preserved organic matter.
The black layers typically documented in Middle Palaeolithic hearths represent the charred ground beneath the fire. Therefore, they can be considered as snapshots of living floors, rich in residues from human activity as well as from soils and vegetation of the natural surroundings.
ERC Paleochar experimental fire
Crucially, experimental data has shown that the average temperatures associated with black layers – below 300°C on average – are high enough for the charring of organic compounds and to make them unappealing to biodegrading soil fauna, but not as high as to destroy their biomarker chemical fingerprints.
Therefore, once charred, organic compounds may preserve well within sediment for indefinite periods of time as long as the sedimentary environment does not undergo strong diagenesis. The PALEOCHAR project will target this important window of organic matter preservation by exploring the black layers of intact Neanderthal fireplaces.
On June 12th, de La Laguna (ULL) held a thematic session focused on Consolidator and Advanced ERC projects, with some practical examples from the fields of archaeology and biophysics. ERC’s national contact point in Spain Esther Rodríguez Blanco and three principal investigators talked about their projects.
Carolina Mallol presented her own experience leading ERC PALEOCHAR at ULL since September 15th, 2015.
In her opinion, this implies a great challenge in management and bureaucracy, executive skills and a lot of flexibility and versatility.
As she explained, achieving an ERC grant requires a very clear idea from the scientific perspective, a very specific work plan and many years of previous work.
During the months of May and June, members of the PALEOCHAR team conducted fieldwork at the Middle Palaeolithic site of Crvena Stijena in Montenegro.
